LFI deputy brings legal action following police violence against schoolchildren in Argenteuil
Paul Vannier, LFI deputy for Val-d'Oise, has brought a case to the Pontoise public prosecutor's office after gathering testimonies from schoolchildren who were victims of police violence. A teenager was seriously injured in the eye by an LBD round.
Report to the prosecutor's office following testimonies of violence against schoolchildren in Argenteuil
According to bfmtv.com, Paul Vannier, La France Insoumise deputy for the 5th constituency of Val-d'Oise, filed a report on Monday 5 October with the Pontoise public prosecutor's office after gathering testimonies from schoolchildren describing police violence during blockades in his constituency.
The Argenteuil-Bezons MP made a report to the prosecutor under article 40, which requires public officials to report any crime or offence observed in the exercise of their duties. The testimonies collected describe baton blows to the face, threats and insults during police interventions against mobilised schoolchildren.
"I have never witnessed a movement so powerful, so clear in its demands and at the same time I have never witnessed such significant police repression against children," Paul Vannier stated at a press conference.
At the heart of the case is that of a schoolchild from Argenteuil, identified by the initial N., struck in the eye by an LBD round at short range during a police intervention on the Thursday morning preceding the announcement, on the Argenteuil platform near two secondary schools. In a photograph shown to journalists, the upper part of the teenager's face appeared swollen and bloodied. "He remains hospitalised to this day. The doctors cannot yet say whether he will lose the use of his eye or not," the deputy said.
There is disagreement over the distance from which the round was fired. "The Pontoise public prosecutor mentioned a distance of 20 metres between the police officer and the schoolchild. This morning, the family told me that this distance was between 5 and 10 metres," Paul Vannier reported. The prosecutor's office has opened an investigation entrusted to the IGPN, the police conduct office.
The schoolchildren's mobilisation, which was to enter a third phase with union support, centres on several demands: the degraded state of school buildings, timetables deemed excessive and the effects of Parcoursup on students' mental health. Paul Vannier described these demands as "perfectly legitimate" and called on the government to "end this escalation of police repression against an absolutely peaceful and protest-oriented schoolchildren's movement".
Source: Google News LU FR