Marseille: police violence covered up by the national police ?

The city of Marseille has opened an administrative investigation targeting the urban supervision center, which centralizes video surveillance images. A case of police violence would have been reported. knowingly concealed by the agents.

A former video operator at the urban supervision center (CSU) of the Marseille municipal police decided to take action. to file a complaint against his hierarchy, reports BFMTV. For five years, Sébastien Florenti was in charge of analyzing the city's video surveillance , and to report any fact falling under the law. An essential role for agents in the field. Questioned by the continuous news channel, the former employee claims that his colleagues have "closedé eyes on violence committed by police officers in May 2023.

At the time, the former operator would have seen a man on one of the cameras, visibly older. escaped, being beaten by police officers. Describing the video surveillance images, he says: "We see them punching people. an individual. He falls to the ground and a second police officer hits him again. "And there, we have [an agent of the] CSU, who instead of monitoring the facts, takes control of the camera and will point it elsewhere", assures the former operator" he adds, accusing an agent of having voluntarily changed his position. the angle of view of the camera during the attack.

"CSU agents bail"

The attitude of CSU Marseille employees is denounced by their former colleague. You have many who don't work [hellip;] they play cards, they do karaoke, they watch movies or TV shows “bedridden,” he explains. "This is police violence. And the CSU agents endorse it. “I don't want to support this mafia,” adds the ex-employee. He says he suffered harassment after the discovery of what could be related to a burr. Which would have forced him to go on leave in November 2023. Contacted by the television channel, the Marseille town hall answered "discover" these "shocking" images, indicating that she was going to open an administrative investigation.

Céline Lefléfian, director of the Municipal Police à Marseille, responded to the accusations of S SéSbastien Florenti. If she concedes “having reports of actions at the CSU level a few months after we arrived&quot ;, the director wonders about the reasons which prompted this decision. the policeman à not speaking until a year later about the facts he denounces. “I don't understand why he kept" this video for a year even though he knows very well the rules of operation and conservation,” laments she at the microphone of BFMTV. 

She even mentions a potential personal matter. "I think that we are more about the instrumentalization of a personal situation and a personal revenge, because this gentleman has not été retained as a municipal police officer,” adds the director of the municipal police.