![France](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/world-news/2023/07/30/TELEMMGLPICT000341280945_16907420218630_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqpVlberWd9EgFPZtcLiMQf0Rf_Wk3V23H2268P_XkPxc.jpeg?imwidth=680)
A boy with a crushed skull, an officer in custody and a French police revolt
Police across France are performing minimum duties in protest at the detention of a Marseille officer for beating a 22-year-old
![France](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/world-news/2023/07/30/TELEMMGLPICT000341280945_16907420218630_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqpVlberWd9EgFPZtcLiMQf0Rf_Wk3V23H2268P_XkPxc.jpeg?imwidth=680)
On a typical day Olivier patrols a mid-sized town in the Champagne region of France on the look-out for dangerous drivers.
But recently, the 44-year-old police officer has either been driving around aimlessly or sitting idle in the police station.
If he sees a minor offence, he turns a blind eye. The only part of his job he fully complies with are emergency calls.
Like hundreds of other officers around the country, Olivier has answered union calls to perform only the bare minimum of duties as part of a nationwide revolt.
The catalyst of the protest was a judge’s decision to jail a Marseille police officer rather than release him under supervision, ahead of his trial for beating a man in France’s riots earlier this month.
The officer, a member of the anti-crime brigade, is one of four accused of violently attacking a 22-year-old man in Marseille, leaving him in a coma with a dent in his skull.
The victim, known as Hedi, says he was not part of the protests and had just left work when he and a friend encountered a group of police officers in the early hours of July 2.
The officers shot him in the head with a riot gun and beat him so badly he suffered a broken jaw and lost part of his vision in one eye.
While he was in a coma, doctors had to remove a large part of his skull, leaving his head disfigured.
The beating was captured on CCTV cameras, but police officers across France have seized on the judicial treatment of one of their own as indicative of a society that no longer values the work they do and the risks they take.
“Why are we working-to-rule? Because a police officer who leaves his house in the morning, may also find himself indicted in the afternoon and then placed in detention by the evening,” Olivier, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told The Telegraph.
“For cops, there’s never a presumption of innocence. You’re guilty right away.”
Because police are an essential service and not allowed to strike, hundreds more have revolted by calling in sick, resulting in fewer police escorts for suspects in court, and fewer night guards in French prisons.
On Thursday, Gerald Darmanin, the interior minister, said about five per cent of police officers have gone on sick leave or have refused to work.
In an interview with La Depeche, police in Toulouse also questioned the judge’s decision to place their colleague in pre-trial detention instead of house arrest, and expressed feelings of “abandonment”.
“What’s the goal? Apart from humiliating us and letting offenders think that anything is possible?” one officer asked.
Nicolas, one of 600 officers in Marseille who have taken sick leave, said he “can’t take it anymore” and is considering leaving the force.
“We are not supported, neither hierarchically nor politically. So at some point, that’s enough,” he told radio station RTL.
Riots broke out across France on June 27 after a police officer shot a French teenager of North-African descent during a traffic stop in a Paris suburb.
But now the nation is discussing the alleged victimhood of the police themselves.
“We are not asking to be above the law,” Olivier said. “We just ask that we be respected in relation to our professions. We know that no one is above the law, but no one is below the law either.”
![tmg.video.placeholder.alt 3eapvj7PmJ4](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/3eapvj7PmJ4/mqdefault.jpg)
However, some of the officers in the Hedi case have not been co-operating fully with the justice system.
“No police officer wishes to collaborate in the investigation, even going so far as to have difficulty identifying themselves on the video,” wrote investigators from the General Inspectorate of the National Police and Justice (IGPN) in their report, according to French news channel BFMTV.
The Marseille officer - the only one in the group to have been carrying a riot gun - was placed in detention at the request of the prosecutor, in order to prevent the accused from consulting one another.
While two of the accused acknowledged their role in the beating, the officer in pre-trial detention, who is identifiable by his T-shirt, claims to remember nothing from that night, denies his involvement, and said he does not recognise himself in the images.
The fourth officer likewise claims to have no recollection of the night, and reportedly refused to be photographed for the victim’s identification, citing “security” issues.
Hedi discussed his injuries in interviews with the French media this week.
“Sometimes I think I’m going to wake up, but I always wake up with this deformed head, with these migraines, and with blurry vision. It’s hard to bear,” he told the French website Konbini, in which he appears shockingly disfigured.
One of the police unions, Unité SGP Police, has subsequently issued a list of demands, including a special status for police officers in detention and anonymity for all agents facing legal charges.
“I think that we’ve reached a point where there has to be an evolution in the justice system and maybe in the police as well. We are not against evolution either,” Olivier said, pointing out the need for better police training on the job.
“In France there have been a lot of changes over the last few years with the number of violent protests and we’re just fed up.”
Before the riots earlier this month, police forces had to deal with the ‘yellow vest’ and pension reform protests.
But Olivier said the most recent outbreaks were the worst he had ever experienced in his 23-year career, and was shocked that they reached his normally quiet town of 60,000 people.
“It was of a violence that I’ve never seen,” he said.
The IGPN are investigating around 30 complaints against police related to the riots, including the death of Mohamed Bendriss, 27, and the blinding of his cousin Abdelkarim, 21, who was struck by projectile during the riots.
![tmg.video.placeholder.alt zlJSFq_gt0o](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/zlJSFq_gt0o/mqdefault.jpg)
Meanwhile, Valentin Gendrot, an investigative journalist who spent months working undercover as an officer in Paris, said he was “astounded” by the recent police revolt.
“I think police need to be reminded of their place because it seems there are a few police officers who think they have all the rights, but no duties,” he said.
Describing the six months he spent on the front lines in 2019, he added: “I think some police officers feel such a sense of impunity that they think they can be both police and mete out justice.
“I saw police officers who delivered justice themselves. I saw police officers commit violence and beat people because they felt that the justice system didn’t act fast enough, that it was too lax. So they rendered justice themselves.”