The attack on a black music producer by the police has rekindled the debate on the practices of the security forces and the president himself, Emmanuel Macron, has acknowledged being “shocked” by the images, captured by a security camera at the entrance to a recording studio in Paris.
The images were released on Thursday by the Loopsider portal, which reported that the attacked man, Michel Zecler, ran into the police patrol when he was outside the study without a mask. The officers came to meet him, leading to a beating in which, according to Zecler, racist insults were uttered.
The events took place on Saturday and initially led to the arrest of the producer, but the dissemination of the images turned the speech around and meant not only the release of Zecler and the withdrawal of the charges, but also the suspension of the agents involved, criticized publicly by the Minister of the Interior, Gérard Darmanin.
The controversy has reached the Elysee and Macron has spoken for 15 minutes with Darmanin. According to sources close to the president cited by the BFMTV chain, the president is “very shocked” by the images, which have come to light just a few days after the violent eviction of a migrant camp in the Plaza de la República in Paris.
The Police have opened internal investigations in both cases, also awaiting the judicial front that may be initiated by the alleged abuses. The Prosecutor’s Office has summoned four agents this Friday to question them about the blows on Zecler.
Both this case and that of the camp cloud the parliamentary procedures of a law promoted by the Government and that limits the capture of images in which members of the security forces appear.
