Police on “strike” over race remark

RIOT police from the CRS have gone on a sickness protest after one of their colleagues was disciplined for a racist remark to a TF1 TV journalist.

The 44 officers went to hospital en masse to get sick notes as they are banned from striking.

They were reacting to a disciplinary procedure launched against an officer who had barred a black woman TV journalist from a press conference, saying: “Since when have they had blacks working at TF1?”

The journalist, Florice Houngbo, was covering the eviction of a group of Tunisian illegal immigrants from a squat in the 19th arrondissement in Paris when she was refused entry to the police press conference.

Despite showing her press card she was unable to get access and had to call her editor at TF1 to try to get the situation cleared up. No other journalist was stopped.

Her union, the Société des Journalistes, has complained about her treatment but no direct complaint has been brought. TF1 editorial director Catherine Nayl said she would be writing to the Préfecture de Police to complain.

Interior minister Claude Guéant has asked the police complaints body ISG to look into the matter. The move came after the Socialist Party spokesman Benoît Hamon condemned the journalist’s treatment and attacked the “growth in racist acts” while calling for the CRS officer to be suspended.

The CRS unit, from Bergerac’s Company 17, are on secondment at Massy, in Essonne.

Photo: Frédéric Boutard - Fotolia.com