Websites accused over police abuse

Interior minister brings defamation charges against two websites for vitriolic attacks on the police

INTERIOR minister Brice Hortefeux has filed a complaint against two internet sites, accusing them of vitriolic attacks on the police by calling them “assassins”.

The two sites juralibertaire.over-blog.com and grenoble.indymedia.org were cited for “publicly defaming the police”.

He said there were some things which shocked him and which he could not allow; and he would not allow such sites to impugn the honour of the police by calling the Anti-Criminal Brigade Brigade Anti-Criminalité the Armed Criminal Band Bande Armée de Criminels.

This week several members of the BAC have been moved out of their homes in Grenoble after claims local gangsters had taken out contracts on their and their families’ lives after a robber was shot in a casino raid.

Mr Hortefeux’s move also comes after he called in the bosses of Poulets de Loué and a rotisserie firm for using poulet, a disrespectful term for the police, in advertising campaigns. The ads showed a single policeman – Loué’s free-range poulet – alongside a van crammed with police to represent other firms’ chickens.

He said the word could not harm anyone but, no matter how anodyne the usage, it amounted to a form of disrespect that could lead to abuse.
Photo: Medef
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