EXCLUDED. Racist remarks by Rouen police officers on Whatsapp: “I was caught in the gear”

By Raphael Tual Published on 2 Jan 21 at 12:22

Peacekeeper Laurent * received a heavy penalty for having participated in the Whatsapp group racist conversations four police officers and two security assistants. The disciplinary council requested dismissal of these officials of the Administrative and Legal Assistance Unit (UAAJ), in June 2020, following a complaint from one of their colleague. An opinion followed by the disciplinary affairs office of the Ministry of the Interior, in October.

Read also

“I experienced it as a trauma”

In the fall, two peacekeepers lodged an appeal with the administrative tribunal, including Laurent * who hopes for reinstatement. For the first time, he agreed to speak to a media. He admits to having experienced the media coverage of this affair revealed by 76actu and Paris-Normandy in January 2020, as “a trauma”.

Laurent left the Rouen region. If he lodged an appeal with the administrative court, it is because he considers that there is no “proportionality of the sanction”.

I can be penalized, I admit it, but there is no proportionality. I am thrown with the dirty water. Of the 9,000 messages from the group, I am accused of four and there are no racist terms.

LaurentPeacekeeper dismissed.

Between psychologist and antidepressants

In the midst of remarks such as “nigger who fout nothing”, “slut of Jews (sic)”, “bougnoule”, Laurent allows himself reflections like “black work” or “she has not seen her black”, but never was not the most active of the group. “I was naive, but I was in the third line and I fall with the others,” he plague today.

Read also

“I’m not a racist, I had a good relationship with my colleagues of color. In 15 years of service, I have never committed a fault, ”the former official justifies himself a posteriori. He believes he was caught “in the gear”: “I did not see all the messages. I discovered a lot of them in the procedure. I understand that it shocked. “

“I wanted to make a career”

If he thinks he would never have gone so far as to “denounce” his colleagues with abject and criminally reprehensible remarks, Laurent still regrets “not to have left the group” of discussions named Althing, “that would have been the minimum to be done ”. Since then, the former cop thinks about it every day. He had recourse to the “police shrink” and to antidepressants “to take it all”.

At 45, Laurent cannot see himself finding another job, changing jobs. He longs to be able to return to a police department. “I never thought that could happen to me. I wanted to have a classic career path, not to wave, to climb the ladder … ”

* The first name has been changed

Source of the article: HERE

–