These four defendants at the bar of the Evreux police court – the fifth being absent – Friday, September 3, had spent hundreds of hours in the courtroom. In uniform, weapon in belt, they participated, until October 2020, in securing the Rouen courthouse, escorting defendants called to appear before monitoring them during the proceedings.
The four men, with blank criminal records, were civil servants in the administrative and judicial unit of the department until their dismissal or dismissal from the national police by disciplinary decision. At the end of 2019, the discussions of a group they had created on the WhatsApp messaging application had been recorded by one of their colleagues, “Alex”, who had seen his name there – he does not wish to see it published – on the cell phone of one of the members.
“Son of a bitch monkey”, says one of the first of the 9,000 messages written between October and December 2019. Among the others: “It’s true that whites do a better job than blacks with their mouths sucking cocks” ; “His own mother is a bitchy whore” ; “You do away with alcohol, football, black people, that already solves a lot of problems”.
An avalanche of racist, sexist, homophobic and anti-Semitic remarks was found in the group, entitled “Althing” – named after the Icelandic Parliament, one of the first in history, considered by one of the defendants as “The Scandinavian equivalent of the Greek agora, a place where a discussion takes place of free men who speak freely”.
Of the eleven police officers on the list of group participants, five were prosecuted – one of them was not present at the hearing. All face a fine of 1,500 euros for “non-public racist insults”. Only those words specifically mentioning “Alex” and another police officer, “Mamad”, targeted because they are black, as well as one of their colleagues, Victoria – notably referred to as “Kebab whore” for having sympathized with two peacekeepers of Maghrebi origin.
“In the police, we are bathed in an ambient racism”
Gilles C. is the most active member of the group. Like the other defendants, he recognizes the facts and claims them. “The moment you create a multiracial society, you have a multiracist society. I understand that we can be prosecuted for racism but in this case, it should be for everyone (…). I really think that the French Republic will end up like Yugoslavia ”, he takes place in court. “This court will not be a platform”, cut the president, Lucie Saint-Genez.
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