France’s police watchdog is dealing with 48 judicial inquiries into police violence during three months of street protests and strikes against the government’s proposed changes to French labour laws, reports The Guardian.
A further 22 complaints of violent behaviour by police have been flagged to the watchdog through letters or messages to its website.
Since protests began in March against François Hollande’s contested changes to employment legislation, tension between police and demonstrators has been growing. More than 1,000 people have been arrested and more than 300 police and gendarmes have been injured during the protests, according to French authorities.
The government has blamed an “irresponsible minority” of troublemakers on the fringes of the demonstrations for attacking police. Last month, police unions staged a march against what they called “anti-cop hatred”.
But demonstrators and other trade unions have accused the police of poor tactics and using disproportionate force and violence. Videos and photographs have been circulated of alleged police brutality.
One police officer is facing a criminal prosecution after apparently being filmed punching a restrained high-school pupil on the margins of a school demonstration in March. The interior minister, Bernard Cazeneuve, has said he was shocked by the case.
Another investigation was launched after footage showed a masked, plainclothes officer beating pupils at the same demonstration. A further investigation is under way after a student protester in Rennes lost an eye when riot police allegedly opened fire with “flash-ball” weapons to control a crowd.