How Young Parisians Expose Police Abuse

Details: Published on Sunday, 29 November -0001 16:00; Written by editor

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© Fred Dufour/AFP/Getty
Earlier this year in Paris, a joint complaint filed by 18 young people finally had its day in court. The case’s defendants were four police officers from a “neighborhood support group.” According to many young Parisians, however, these officers tended to express their “support” for marginalized communities through ethnic profiling and abuse. Throughout the trial, depressingly familiar forms of this abuse were revealed: harrowing footage from an officer’s body camera, an alleged order to “oust the undesirables,” a pattern of those in authority looking the other way. How the case’s judges will rule is still unknown, but by pushing their cause into the spotlight, these young people have performed an invaluable service for tolerance, equality, and the rule of law.

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