Interior Minister Refers New Police Racism Case to Courts After Facebook Group Exposed

After Rouen, another case of "racist, homophobic and sexist messages" posted in a private group on Facebook reserved for law enforcement, called "TN Rabiot Police Officiel", and composed of 8,000 members, was revealed by the news site StreetPress.

On Friday, June 5, the Minister of the Interior, Christophe Castaner, referred the matter to the courts on this subject, under Article 40 of the Code of Criminal Procedure which requires "any constituted authority, any public official or civil servant who, in the exercise of his duties, acquires knowledge of a crime or misdemeanor (...) to report it without delay to the public prosecutor."

For the minister, it is essential to verify these remarks which, if proven, "are unacceptable and likely to seriously undermine the honor of the national police and gendarmerie, whose men and women are engaged on a daily basis to protect the French, including against racism and discrimination."

Regarding the Rouen police officers, arrested in December 2019 for racist remarks exchanged privately on the WhatsApp messaging service, the Director General of the National Police, Frédéric Veaux, announced on Thursday, June 4, to the Agence France-Presse (AFP), that they are being referred to the disciplinary council.

It all started with a complaint from a black police officer, assigned to the administrative and judicial assistance unit, against six of his Rouen colleagues, for proven racist remarks. A preliminary investigation had been opened and the General Inspectorate of the National Police (IGPN), the police of the police, had been seized for "aggravated non-public defamation and non-public incitement to discrimination."

The dissemination, on Thursday, of these remarks, by Arte Radio and Mediapart, did not help the police’s case, already accused of violence and racism. For his part, the Director General of the National Police (DGPN), Frédéric Veaux, reassured that all administrative consequences will be drawn from these acts "which obviously have no place in the national police" and which will be subject to "the most severe sanctions", adding that "the police in France is not racist. It suffers from these behaviors which do not correspond at all to the republican values it defends."