The French Loi defines what the usual concept indicates by the expression police bur : is regarded as such any disproportionate use of the force for purposes to be reached .

Legal context

The French police officers are held to employ the force only at legitimate ends or to make carry out legitimate orders and this, proportionally with the incurred danger or the force that one opposes to them (see in particular the Code of conduct of the national police force, adopted by a decree of the March 18th 1986).

The law also sanctions the offense of abuse of authority, which is generally the prelude to the police bur.

Certain texts of the Criminal procedure code are also ramparts with the police bur. Also, the police officers can be declared responsible penally for infringements made in the performance of their duties. In fact the prosecutor S are, in theory, in charge of the control of the legal activities of the police officers.

National ethics commission of the safety, chaired by Philippe Leger, day before, on seizure citizen by the means of a member of Parliament, the respect of the deontology by the police force and deprived of safety.

Defense associations of the human rights denounce sometimes police officers for their responsibility in cases for violent death. The latter can be marked murder or manslaughters. Since these deaths often concern young people of foreign origins, the French police force is sometimes shown of racism.

Some examples

The police burs constitute sometimes an element release of urban riots.

; Examples of police burs having been the subject of judgment:

  • Houari Ben Mohamed, 17 years, killed accidentally of a ball in the head by a CRS during an identity check to Marseilles in October 1980. The police officer is condemned to 10 months of suspended sentence for manslaughter.

  • Malik Oussekine, 23 years, beaten with died by two Voltigeur S the December 6th 1986 with Paris at the time of a demonstration coed. The two police officers are condemned to suspended sentences for “aggravated assault having resulted in unintentional death to give it” ( to see: Business Malik Oussekine ).

  • Aissa Ihich : May 25th 1991, after one week of riots in the Mantes-the-Pretty city of the Valley Lined with , of the young people ransack a shopping mall. Five of them are challenged and placed as a police custody, of which Aissa Ihich, 19 years, which dies of a Mantes-the-Pretty asthma attack to the police station of . In 2001, the two police officers blamed are condemned to eight month of suspended sentence for “violences with weapon by people agents of the public authority in the performance of their duties”.

  • Makomé Me Bowolé: In April 1993, Makomé Me Bowolé, a 17 year old minor challenged for a flight of cigarettes, is cut down with end carrying to the police station of the 18th district of Paris. In 1996, the police officer responsible for the shot is condemned to 8 years of prison.

  • Fabrice Fernandez: The December 20th 1997, Fabrice Fernandez, 24 years, is cut down with bearing end by a police officer in a police station of Lyon. The police officer is condemned to 12 years of prison firm.

  • Sydney Manoka Nzeza: In November 1998 with Tourcoing, Sydney Manoka Nzeza, a boxer amateur 25 year old, dies during its interpellation, whereas three police officers tried to handcuff it by maintaining it on the ground. They are five police officers with being judged in 2000. Two of them are recognized guilty of manslaughter and are condemned to 7 months of suspended sentence. The five police officers are on the other hand released of the count of indictment of “non-assistance to anybody in danger”.

  • Habib, 17 years, killed accidentally during its interpellation of a drawn ball with bearing end by a police officer on December 13rd, 1998 with Toulouse. The police officer author of the shot will be condemned to three one-year suspended sentences for manslaughter. This death causes several days of riots, during which a young person will try to kill a police officer, wounding it seriously.

Apart from these cases where police officers were condemned by justice, there exist also cases in which the police officers were cleared by the courts. In both cases, the legal decisions are generally disputed, as well by the police officers condemned as by the close relations of the victims when the police officers are cleared. The courts can clear the police officers either because the death of the people deceased is regarded as accidental, or when it self-defense is recognized.

; Examples of businesses for which the police officers were cleared:

  • Mohamed Diab, accidentally killed out of a gust of machine-gun in November 1972.

  • Ouardia Aoudache, mother of eleven children, accidentally dead with the police station of Jœuf in Lorraine on August 14th 1984. Justice pronounced a withdrawal of case in this business.

  • Youssef Khaif, 23 years, killed of a ball in the nape of the neck at Mantes-the-Pretty on June 9th 1991 whereas it tried to escape at the wheel of a stolen car, a member of his band having a few minutes earlier, with another vehicle, killed police the Marie-Christine Baillet at the same place.

  • Thibaut Cottoni, 13 years, killed accidentally at the time of a burgling in a cellar with Asnières-sur-Seine by the VAT in January 1992.

  • Abdelkader Bouziane, 16 years, killed by a police officer during a road block on December 17th 1997 on the road of Fontainebleau. Abdelkader Bouziane, at the wheel of a car, came to force a first stopping. The court of criminal appeal pronounced a withdrawal of case in this business.

  • Riyadh Hamlaoui: 23 years, killed by a police officer of Lille in the night of April 15th 2000 whereas it was on board a stolen car. This death will cause two days of riots.

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