Controversy Erupts Over Police Officer Wearing Djellaba During Drug Raid in Vesoul

This 10-second video was filmed in the Montmarin district on February 6. In total, 10 police officers were on the ground to arrest drug dealers, reports L’Est Républicain. Among them, an agent wearing a djellaba under his jacket. This video is not to the liking of the residents of this neighborhood. They cry "provocation". "I thought it was a joke. I thought he had dressed up," says a mother who became aware of the video through her daughter.

Commissioner Jonathan Biwand, departmental director of public security in Haute-Saône, tries to clarify the situation. According to him, it was a "personal initiative". "The anti-crime brigade has set up a surveillance system with a view to arrests in the context of drug trafficking. One of the police officers had the idea of putting on a djellaba to go unnoticed, to get as close as possible to the target and give his colleagues posted around the area the signal for the arrest," explained the official.

"The aim of the game was to manage to do a check while being anonymous. It worked because at one point, [the policeman] crossed a group without being noticed," adds Christophe Ortiger, a Bac sergeant and departmental delegate of the Unité SGP Police union. If this practice is "customary" in the neighborhoods of Paris, this former police officer from the capital says that it was a first in Montmarin, and that it did not please the residents.

The Vesoul police officers reject the thesis of "provocation" and defend their colleague. "The policeman wearing the tunic is of Muslim faith. We cannot accuse him of racism," specifies the commissioner, assuring that his team respected "the regulations and ethics" during the February 6 intervention. The operation proved unsuccessful. No one was arrested. Mortar fire was fired at the police without hitting them. "Shots because we disturbed a drug trafficking, not because of the djellaba," explains Christophe Ortiger.