French Cops Whip Man With Muzzle In Brutal Arrest

Story By: Ernest Bio BogoreSub-EditorJoseph Golder, Agency:  Newsflash

Credit: Newsflash

This is the moment French cops are seen whipping a man with a dog’s muzzle in the head as he shouts “I’m choking” during the arrest.

The startling footage was reportedly recorded in the city of Toulouse in France’s southern Occitanie region and has since been slammed by human rights groups.

In the footage, a group of officers can be seen arresting a man who is taken down to his knees.

One of the officers whips the man in the head with a dog muzzle as the cops shout “lie down, lie down”.

The man, who has not been named, shouts “I’m choking” as a police dog accompanies the officers.

Picture Credit: Newsflash

Footage reportedly taken from the following morning appears to show blood on the walls where the arrest was made.

Spokesman of the union Unite SGP Police, Didier Martinez, said in a statement yesterday (Sunday) the man was 1.90 metres (6 feet 3 inches) tall and weighed 130 kilogrammes (286 lbs). He said he “had escaped from a psychiatric ward (and was) designated as psychologically unstable and potentially in possession of a grenade and a handgun.

He continues: “It was necessary for the responding personnel to manage to handcuff this very large and increasingly virulent man in an attempt to reason with him to allow himself to be subdued,” continues the regional secretary of this union.”

David Leyraud, one of the regional leaders of the union Alliance Police Nationale, added that the man had resisted his arrest by hitting “one of the officers with a stick.”

Human rights defenders say they are shocked by the “violence of the arrest”, according to local media.

Jeff Mignard of the Toulouse branch of the Human Rights League (LDH) said: “We are surprised by the way a police officer behaved. The attitude seems to us to be inappropriate in terms of violence and respect for the dignity of the person. The images are shocking.”

Pascal Gassiot, a member of the Copernicus Foundation and the Observatory of Police Violence, said: “This violence is in keeping with the police violence that we have been observing for several years. In this period of confinement, we see that some police officers are letting loose.”

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