PARIS: French prosecutors have launched an investigation after a video showing a police officer beating a black woman with a baton and spraying tear gas directly into her face sparked outrage.
Interior minister Manuel Valls said on Tuesday that prosecutors in the central city of Tours had ordered the IGPN police internal affairs branch to investigate after the video, called "Shame on the French police", was posted on the internet on Sunday.
"An investigation has been opened. The matter has been referred to the IGPN," Valls told BFMTV. "We need the whole truth and full transparency... The police must be irreproachable; the vast majority of police officers carry out difficult and remarkable work." The eight-minute video, which was viewed more than 690,000 times on YouTube and had more than 13,500 comments posted, was filmed from the upper storey of a building and shows two police officers trying to subdue a woman in the street.
Filmed early on Sunday in the Tours suburb of Joue-les-Tours, the video does not show the beginning of the altercation, which local newspaper La Nouvelle Republique said started when police stopped a car driving erratically around 7 am. The newspaper said the car driver was drunk and refused an alcohol test. It quoted police sources as saying the car's female passenger intervened, repeatedly biting one officer.
The video shows the officer wrestling with the woman , then striking her several times in the body with his baton and once fully in the face. He then retrieves a tear gas bottle and sprays it directly on her face. The police officer then sprays another female passenger in the face with the tear gas, before several more police vehicles arrive in reinforcement.
Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/europe/Video-of-French-cop-hitting-black-woman-stirs-row/articleshow/21947370.cms
Interior minister Manuel Valls said on Tuesday that prosecutors in the central city of Tours had ordered the IGPN police internal affairs branch to investigate after the video, called "Shame on the French police", was posted on the internet on Sunday.
"An investigation has been opened. The matter has been referred to the IGPN," Valls told BFMTV. "We need the whole truth and full transparency... The police must be irreproachable; the vast majority of police officers carry out difficult and remarkable work." The eight-minute video, which was viewed more than 690,000 times on YouTube and had more than 13,500 comments posted, was filmed from the upper storey of a building and shows two police officers trying to subdue a woman in the street.
Filmed early on Sunday in the Tours suburb of Joue-les-Tours, the video does not show the beginning of the altercation, which local newspaper La Nouvelle Republique said started when police stopped a car driving erratically around 7 am. The newspaper said the car driver was drunk and refused an alcohol test. It quoted police sources as saying the car's female passenger intervened, repeatedly biting one officer.
The video shows the officer wrestling with the woman , then striking her several times in the body with his baton and once fully in the face. He then retrieves a tear gas bottle and sprays it directly on her face. The police officer then sprays another female passenger in the face with the tear gas, before several more police vehicles arrive in reinforcement.
Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/europe/Video-of-French-cop-hitting-black-woman-stirs-row/articleshow/21947370.cms
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