HORRIFYING

Paris Police Officers Suspended After Video of Brutal Beating of Black Music Producer Surfaces

On Tuesday, the lower house of the French parliament passed a bill restricting filming police in public.

Several Paris police officers were suspended Thursday after video surfaced of them brutally beating a Black man. Michel Zecler, a music producer, told the Associated Press that he did not know why officers followed him into his music studio, beating him with truncheons and using racial epithets before arresting him. “I want to understand why I have been assaulted by people who were wearing a police uniform,” Zecler said. The video was first published by French website Loopsider. On Tuesday, the lower house of the French parliament passed a bill restricting filming police in public. The Paris prosecutor’s office, as well as the Inspectorate General of the National Police—the organization tasked with investigating allegations of police misconduct—are looking into the incident, according to the AP.