{UAH} Protests spread across Paris estates as anger grows over alleged police rape
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Protests spread across Paris estates as anger grows over alleged police rape
Violence continues for fourth successive night on housing estates after police officer charged with raping young man with baton
French police arrested a dozen people on a fourth straight night of clashes with youths on housing estates north of Paris, amid fury over a violent arrest in which a police officer was charged with raping a young man with a baton.
The case put the spotlight on police brutality in France, where officers are regularly accused of using excessive force in poorer neighbourhoods, particularly against black and minority ethnic young men.
One officer was charged with anally raping a young black man with an expandable police baton during an arrest after identity checks on a police patrol last week in Aulnay-sous-Bois north of Paris. The 22-year-old, known only by his first name, Théo, suffered such serious injuries to the rectum that he needed major emergency surgery, and remains in hospital. Three other officers were charged with assault. The four officers, who deny the charges, have been suspended.
On Tuesday night, clashes with police and the torching of cars, bins and bus shelters spread to estates in neighbouring suburban areas. But in Aulnay-sous-Bois itself the disturbances stopped after Théo appealed for calm from his hospital bed. Hundreds of demonstrators also took to the streets in the east of Paris.
Théo, who has no police record, was visited in hospital by the French president,François Hollande, on Tuesday as the government sought to calm tensions on housing estates and deflect criticism that it had in the past turned a blind eye to allegations of police brutality.
With Hollande beside his hospital bed, Théo made a televised appeal for his neighbourhood to stay calm and "stay united". He said he did not want a war on the estate and that he trusted the justice system.
Théo's sister, a professional handball player, said the family wanted justice and calm, not "incidents".
Earlier Théo had described the assault, saying he thought he was going to die. He said a police baton was forced into his anus and that he was then sprayed with teargas to the face and mouth and beaten to the head while officers shouted insults, including "bitch". He said the pain from being sprayed and beaten to the head seemed "fleeting" because he was in such agony from the baton attack. "I was walking only because they were holding me up," he said.
Shortly after, he was rushed to hospital for emergency surgery to repair his rectum. Doctors said he would be incapacitated for three months.
Mothers from the Rose-des-Vents housing estate in Aulnay-sous-Bois – known as the "3,000" estate for the number of homes there – attended a meeting in the local police station asking for riot police stationed around the estate since the incident to be removed, warning that a large riot police presence in the area could add to tensions.
Sebastian Roché, a sociologist specialising in French policing, told Le Parisien newspaper that in recent years politicians had done little to address the decaying relationship between police and young people or to tackle the tensions and racial discrimination on housing estates. He said: "The crucial question is how to treat citizens in an equal way? No government on the right or left has seized on this question."
With less than three months until the French presidential election, tension over policing in France has become a political issue. The far-right Front National'sMarine Le Pen, who polls show will make it to the final presidential runoff in May, has large support among police – more than half the police and military vote Front National. Questioned over Théo's case, she said her principle was to "support the police" unless the justice system proved a crime had taken place.
The Socialist prime minister, Bernard Cazeneuve, demanded the "utmost severity" if the officers were found guilty of the charges.
Last year, French police took part in a national protest against what they called"anti-cop hatred", after clashes with demonstrators at rallies against the government's proposed new labour laws.
In 2005, weeks of riots erupted on estates across France after two teenagers were electrocuted when they hid in an electricity substation while being chased by police. The death in police custody last summer of a young black man just outside Paris, and the slow reaction of authorities, has sparked accusations of police violence and a state cover-up. An investigation is continuing.
Last autumn, France's highest court upheld a ruling finding the French state guilty of carrying out unjustified identity checks on men from ethnic minorities. The collective case on state racial profiling was the first of its kind in France. Gratuitous ID checks have long been cited as a prime reason for troubled relations between police and residents of poor suburbs.
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