Denunciation of racist police discrimination: ulcerated reactions in Vitry-sur-Seine

A look back at the facts and the differences in versions

The arrest takes place on Tuesday, May 26, just before 5 p.m. in Vitry-sur-Seine, on the edge of Villejuif and the Kremlin-Bicêtre. The day before, a man was robbed of his gold chain at the intersection of boulevard Gorki (D7) and rue Condorcet. Thefts of this type are quite frequent in the neighborhood and this same Tuesday, May 26, around 9 p.m., an arrest of several people in flagrante delicto will take place for this same reason in Villejuif, following a surveillance conducted jointly by the municipal police of Villejuif and the national police. This Tuesday afternoon, the BAC (Anti-Crime Brigade) is therefore patrolling the neighborhood and, advising the four teenagers, believes that several of them could correspond to the profile described by the victim of the previous day. She begins to tow them a little before 4 p.m. and judges their flaunting behavior suspicious, especially around the bus shelters Paul Vaillant-Couturier – Paul Brousse, because, according to the observations of the agents, the teenagers scrutinize the pedestrians but are not interested not on bus schedules. A few moments later, when the kids landed in front of a building, allée Debussy in Vitry, the Bac was informed of the presence of the victim of the previous day at the police station, who stood ready to come and identify these possible suspects. Passing in front of the car, the man thinks he recognizes them and indicates at first that he identifies them “Formally“.

La Bac therefore decides to arrest them to take them to the Kremlin-Bicêtre police station. Still from a police source, the arrest went smoothly and “No wrongdoing is seen on either side”, even if according to the agents, one of the four is a little more bravery than the others in his remarks. Teenagers deliver a very different version of the facts. “The police search them, take pictures of them and, on an ongoing basis, will mock them, disdain and racist and homophobic insults” reports the father of one of the teenagers, Mohand Bakir who indicates that they were handcuffed and had to sit and stand up without help.

The question of the route to take the teenagers to the police station is also the subject of divergent versions. “There was already a policeman sitting in the back. When I suggested there wouldn’t be enough room for the three of us, I slapped myself, and he told me “we were PDs,” that we like it “”, confides one of the teens. Words and actions denied by the police.

Police sources said three vehicles were ultimately used to take the young people to the police station: a first car from the Bac de Villejuif, a second from the BTC (Territorial Contact Brigade) in Vitry-sur-Seine, and a third from the BTC of Kremlin-Bicêtre. At the press conference on Thursday evening, the spokesperson for the families and the teenagers for their part reported a municipal police car. The cities of Vitry-sur-Seine and Villejuif, however, deny any involvement of their municipal police and the mayor of Vitry, Jean-Claude Kennedy, even cracked a press release on Wednesday, denouncing the resumption of this version in several media , while assuring young people of its support.

A police custody that exceeds 24 hours

One of the four was quickly released. Police custody begins for the others which, according to family lawyer, Maître Jérôme Karsenti, will last “More than 27-28 hours while for minors, it is 24 hours maximum”. What give rise to a complaint for “Arbitrary detention In addition to complaints of racial and homophobic insults. “We all receive a call telling us that our child is here, that he is fine, doctor and lawyer in support, and that the facts are established, they are guilty”, relates Mohand Bakir. A court-appointed lawyer apparently without seeking the advice of the families, whose families say they have still been unable to obtain the name.

A folder that deflates

The charge file, however, quickly deflates. On May 25, two of the accused teens did not leave their homes. Another one came out, but much later after the fact. In addition, it exceeds 1.80 meters when the victim described a person of 1.60 m. The boundaries of their mobile phones do not stick either and, finally, the man attacked the day before no longer identifies them formally at all. In short, the case fizzled out and the middle school students were finally released the next day.

“Unfortunately, this story could not be more banal. Two Arabs, a black man and a white man hanging out with them, are bound to be delinquents ” , castigates Jérôme Karsenti who filed four complaints. “We are still in shock and we too expect an apology, in addition to the opening of an IGPN investigation, sanctions, and the recognition of procedural shortcomings”, say the mothers.

“We hear today the need for parents to repeat that their children are innocent. So almost all of us realized that it would not have been surprising if they had been humiliated and abused, if they had been guilty. Their rights have been violated on discriminatory grounds“, Insists the lawyer. “We are 40 times more likely to be controlled by being black or Arab, which is why we shouldn’t let this go anymore. The police are only respected if they are respectable “, adds MP Mathilde Panot.

Rebelote four days later

As in a television series, these are the same protagonists that we find four days later, Saturday May 30, always in the same district, this time in the Emile Zola park which reopens just after the sanitary closure . Two of the youths were again checked by two of the officers. A “Totally useless control if not to intimidate young people who have relived the confiscation of telephones and the body search”, denounces the father. Police sources said the teens were degrading signs indicating the precautions to be taken when faced with the coronavirus.

Teacher support

In the room this Thursday evening, ten teachers from the Jean Perrin college in Vitry-sur-Seine, where the students are schooled, came to show their support for the teenagers. “30 teachers are ready to testify“, Says the lawyer. “I came to support my students because I am very shocked by these stories, and the experience it has been for these teens. I hope it will have the least possible long-term consequences, “ expresses himself in particular Luc Dehêtre, professor of history-geography.

“It makes me want to be a policeman even more”

On the adolescent side, this massive support is good. “It is a pleasure to be supported, to be believed, because that was not always the case, especially in this story: we could read that we were always considered as suspects of the Kremlin incident then that we are today cleared. In addition to being falsely accused, we suffered physical and moral violence. And there too, we were not believed. However, we know that not all police officers are like them, so we would like those responsible to apologize. “, confides one of them.

“I’m not afraid, but I already had a bad image of the police, and now even more than before” confides the one who indicates having been slapped. I know that similar stories have already taken place, except that there we are listened to and believed. Our history is nothing at all compared to what is happening in the world and especially in the United States at the moment; but I tell myself that to start by avoiding that, could prevent it from overflowing. “

One of the teenagers, however, dreams of becoming a policeman, and he even did his observation training as a third at the Vitry-sur-Seine police station. He says that he entrusted this dream to the agents and indicates that the latter replied to him “That he will deliver pizza instead” with his “Stolen scooter”. Not enough to discourage him. “It makes me want to be a gendarme even more, precisely for that sort of thing. I want to show that these practices can stop, I want the police to have a better image. “ At the age of 14, his boyfriend nods. “I was afraid, yes. Especially when I saw my friend being slapped, just before I got into the car, I said to myself that I had to cooperate. But today, after the shock, I’m no longer afraid when I see a policeman, it’s just still a little weird. “

Police want to press charges

The four accused police officers said they were planning to file a defamation complaint. “Part of the crew participated in the arrest of the Villejuif terrorist in January, recalls for its part Reda Belhaj, SGP-FO Police delegate, who denounces in return a stigmatization of the police. The heroes of yesterday are the accused of today. “

The Créteil public prosecutor’s office seized the police

Faced with these very divergent versions and the gravity of the facts complained of, the Créteil Prosecutor’s Office decided to objectify the situation by entering the IGPN (General Inspectorate of the National Police) who should resume the whole procedure through the menu and hear each protagonist . An instruction which will however take place over a long time, without immediate verdict.

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