Video shows police using a Taser to disperse a group that appears to be festive in Paris
by
Anna Bonnemasou-Carrère published on December 29, 2021 at 6:27 pm
A video posted on Twitter and Youtube shows a police officer using a Taser to disperse demonstrators who appear peaceful, dancing on the banks of the Seine in Paris on Sunday. Police say officers have put an end to an undeclared rally of anti-health pass protesters.
Screenshot of the video from December 26, 2021 © Dj Harrachi
It's a
video posted on the internet on Sunday that went viral on Tuesday when one of its clips was shared on Twitter. We see five or six police officers, one of whom uses a Taser to disperse a seemingly peaceful grouping, some visibly aged 40 or 50 dancing salsa. The scene takes place Sunday on the quays of the Seine in Paris,
according to the author of the video, which France Inter was able to reach, and the police.
The video was viewed 200,000 times
on twitter in a matter of hours. Its long version, posted on Youtube, has been viewed 8,000 times.
The scene takes place on Sunday in the 5th arrondissement in Paris
Last Sunday, the author of the video walks, during the afternoon, on the Saint-Bernard quays, in the 5th arrondissement of Paris with two friends. They stop at the "Arènes" level, on the left bank, near the Latin Quarter, to enjoy the music that a group of people is playing. His two friends join in the dance, he decides to film them and that's how he sees "
five, six, police officers " appearing in the field of his camera.
The thirteen minutes of filmed images show the intervention of five or six agents , several of whom do not wear the mask, to disperse a group of people, which seems festive and of which most of the participants are unmasked. The tension mounts: "Either you circulate, or you are fined" , we can hear on the video. The exchanges escalate and one of the police officers uses his Taser several times to disperse the crowd that has formed around him.
"The atmosphere was good-natured, until they arrived. In addition it was people of a certain age, they were elderly", assures the author of the video to France Inter.
According to the police, the agents intervened to put an end to an undeclared rally on the public road near the prefecture, the people appearing on the video being anti-health pass protesters. Also according to this source, the agents asked the organizer of the rally for his identity papers , with a view to an arrest, but the latter refused to comply, which generated tensions and the use of
a Taser set to "shocker" mode. Three people jostled the agent who carried out the arrest, according to a police source.
"The fact that the agent is not wearing a mask is messy"
According to this source, the Taser, a non-lethal contact weapon for defense , which delivers an electric shock on contact, was put to good use, to disperse those who came in contact with it and surrounded it. If one of our sources considers the use of the shocker adapted, it recognizes however that "
the fact that he [the agent proceeding to the arrest of the organizer of the event]
does not wear a mask makes disorder ".
Une vidéo montre des policiers utilisant un Taser pour disperser un regroupement qui paraît festif à Paris
Une vidéo montre des policiers utilisant un Taser pour disperser un regroupement qui paraît festif à Paris