Officials were pursued for non-public insults before the Evreux Police Court. Racist, sexist, homophobic and anti-Semitic remarks in the email application had been denounced by one of their colleagues.
Le Monde with AFP
Five police officers of Rouen (Seine-Maritime) were sentenced by justice, Friday, November 5, to fines ranging from 150 to 1,000 euros for racist remarks held in a WhatsApp discussion group. Between October and December 2019, eleven officials had sent nearly 9,000 messages, including many racist, sexist, homophobic and anti-Semitic insults. Only those specifically targeting their former black colleagues in the Department’s administrative and judicial unit, as well as another service official, had been selected during the investigation.
“Monkey whores”, said one of the first excerpts of the conversation, attended by eleven peacekeepers. Among the others: “It’s true that the whites do a better job than blacks with their mouths to suck cocks”; “His own mother is a bitch in Bougnoules”; “You delete alcohol, football, blacks, it already solves a lot of problems”. In court, the five defendants had recognized the words attributed to them.
Five policemen sanctioned by their hierarchy
In his judgment, the Evreux Police Court recognized them guilty “of the facts of non-public injuries”. Two of the agents were sentenced to fines of 1,000 euros, two others to fines of 400 and 150 euros, and a fifth accused at 1,000 euros of fine, including 500 euros suspended, depending on their level of involvement. in the group. On the civilian pane, the five police officers were also sentenced to pour “a euro” to the movement against racism and for the friendship between peoples (MRAP) and SOS-Racism, civil parties in this trial.
The case started after the complaint, in December 2019, from a black policeman who had discovered on the mobile phone of a colleague he was the target of these racist comments on whatsapp. The mediatization of the case, especially by the publication of a podcast by Radio artery broadcasting sent voice messages and an investigation of Mediapart , had triggered an acceleration of the procedure.
On the five police officers pursued, the temporary contracts of two officials had not been renewed and three incumbents had been revoked from the national police. The latter had filed recourse against this sanction which was canceled, for one of them, by the Administrative Court of Rouen, at the end of October. If he has “discriminatory remarks”, according to the judgment consulted by the France-Presse Agency, these facts “are isolated and the professional qualities of the applicant, as dutied since the 1 may 2005, were previously recognized. ” A decision that does not call into question his criminal conviction.