However, the minister didn't question immobilising people by putting them down on their belly – a tactic that is often used in France, but is banned in some countries. This technique for detaining a person, which has been applied in several cases in France that have resulted in the death of detainees, is being debated amid Floyd's death in the United States. Sputnik has discussed the issue with Laurent-Franck Liénard, who advocates for many police officers.
"Police and gendarmerie schools will no longer teach chokeholds. This move was dangerous", Christophe Castaner said. Moreover, the minister said that the police would no longer be able to press on a detainee's neck or back of the head.
According to the lawyer, this is more nonsense. In his opinion, it "works quite well" and allows police to "detain dangerous people". In this regard, he commented on the story of courier Cédric Chouviat's detention in January 2020; he died within 48 hours after his detention and his family blames the police for his death.
"Who was killed? Shuvia, who wore a helmet that was squeezing his neck, and we don't even know whether he died from a chokehold", said Liénard, who is defending two of the four police officers involved in the Chouviat case (Cédric Chouviat died after being immobilised by the police during a check).
"What will be used instead?" the lawyer wondered. "If you can't keep a person's head in place to neutralise them, you will have to beat them!"
French Interior Minister Castaner also announced that police would be "systematically suspended from work" if there's any "apparent suspicion of racism". This is a new disciplinary measure, but legally it's ridiculous, Liénard said. According to him, this innovation is "an empty phrase from a legal perspective": "This is called the presumption of guilt. Our values and the inviolable principle of the presumption of innocence are completely turned upside down!"
"Since yesterday I've only heard the police say how devastated they are by [the interior minister’s] statements! They were waiting for support, but what they’ve heard was that they would be under suspicion".
The lawyer fears that police officers will be suspended from work without any reason: "What will they rely on? What will be used as evidence? Who will be suspended? Is denunciation enough?" And the consequences won't be long in coming: "If [the authorities] are busy suspecting them, the police will start resigning en masse".
"Adama Traore (who also died during detention) was detained not because he was black! […] It's wrong to say that France has a racist society. Our society has managed to get rid of racism. And by the way, in the police, there're people of very different cultures and races".
"We [at Liénard’s law firm] have 300 cases involving police and gendarmes. One third of them deal with the use of weapons, and two thirds deal with the use of force. We have very few cases of racism; today we have only one case in 300!" Liénard said.
