|
|
– Self-serving police and justice |
|
|
|
State justice: double standards…
The actor of the “Taxi” trilogy, Samy Naceri, was sentenced Thursday to six months’ imprisonment and a fine of 8,000 euros by the Nanterre criminal court (Hauts-de-Seine, France) for racist insults and insults to police officers. The prosecution had requested six months of imprisonment, three of which were suspended, and a fine of 4,000 euros. In March 2006, stopped by police officers in Boulogne-Billancourt, Mr. Naceri insulted them. At the hearing, he said he had taken antidepressants and drank alcohol that evening. Placed in a sobering-up cell, he insulted one of the police officers early in the morning. He will also have to pay 500 euros in damages to four police officers and 1,500 to a fifth called a “dirty nigger”. The actor must appear on December 18 before the Paris criminal court for acts of violence. Samy Naceri has already been convicted of drug possession and traffic violations. (Source: La LIbre 14/12/2006)
Far be it from us to defend Samy Naceri in any way. But the extreme severity of the sentence is surprising. If every drunkard were to be sentenced to 6 months in prison for having drunk and making jokes…The real reason is that those who were targeted by these insults were police officers, who are agents of the State and supposed to represent the authority, and that this judgment was rendered by an organ of State Justice. If you had been the victim of verbal attacks, would you have been as remarkably defended? Double standards…It is this same self-sacralization of the authoritarian state that today makes police officers targets in the suburbs. The implicit rule of double standards also applies, among other examples, to administrative justice entirely devoted to the cause of the State: a favorable bias will always benefit administrations. A reform of Justice, less jargonous, more transparent, more egalitarian, more participatory and more open to civil society, is necessary. As for racist insults, it is clear that they no longer come from those we would have thought most likely to utter them or best placed to do so…
|
|
|
