Brutal Police Attack on Black Producer Shocks France

A video posted on Loopsider made it known to French citizens that music producer Michel Zecler was brutally beaten by the police for 13 minutes in Paris on November 21.

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President Emmanuel Macron said he was "very shocked" by the police violence and asked Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin to punish the three officers involved in the attack, as Le Monde reported.

During an interview on France 2 TV, this senior official announced he had asked for the suspension of the police officers who carried out a "tremendously shocking" attack.

"If justice finds a fault, I will ask for the removal of the three policemen who tarnished the image of the Republic. When people are playing, they have to take off their Republic uniform,” Darmanin said.

Next week the Senate will vote on a "global security" bill containing a controversial article that prohibits and penalizes the "malicious" dissemination of images of what police officers do, especially during demonstrations.

Human rights defenders question that bill because they fear the law will make it difficult for the press to cover the protests and make it even more difficult to report police brutality. The project, however, has already been approved in the National Assembly.

The police officers directly involved in the attack, as well as an agent suspected of having thrown a tear gas canister at the place where the music producer was, were initially suspended for four months and placed in police custody. The Paris Prosecutor's Office opened an investigation against these officials.