Riots have broken out in France over a new bill outlawing the filming of police and a suspected case of police brutality. BBC. Riots and demonstrations were held in Paris and many other French cites. The new law would ban and criminalize publishing film or photographs of police officers with the intent to harm their "physical or psychological integrity". The riots have also been fueled by a viral video showing police trying to detain Michel Zecler, a French music producer. Zecler claims that the police used excessive force and used racial language against him.
My Comment:
Normally French people rioting is not even worthy of mentioning these days but it's a slow news day and the case does touch on a lot of interesting subjects. But I do want to mention that the French rioting is nothing new and if it hadn't been this incident something else would have set off riots eventually anyways.
This is one of those rare case where just about everyone involved looks like a complete imbecile. Nobody here looks good and I'm actually rather disgusted with the entire situation.
First of all, this law is absolutely ridiculous. I have always had a major problem with people trying to censor photography and film. As far as I am concerned anything that happens in the public is fair game. I also think that since there is no law against a person saying what they saw with their own eyes, or making a drawing of painting of the same thing, I think there should be no law against publishing a photo, regardless of how it was taken (with a few obvious exceptions). This law is a farce and a huge insult to the concept of freedom of speech. And I am sure that France's current harassment laws could cover any actual harassment that police officers face, if they were to actually use them.
And the Zecler case? The cops screwed up there. Why? Because they were harassing someone for not wearing a facemask. Normally I would be on the cops side here but harassing someone just for not wearing a facemask? What a waste of police resources. It's disgusting that they tried to arrest someone for that. I know that the cops are following orders of the politicians but at some point someone should have said "No, this is stupid, we aren't doing that". Shame on these cops for enforcing something so stupid.
But let's not pretend that the other side isn't also stupid as hell. I watched the video and I saw no problem with the police use of force against Zecler. He was resisting arrest and I would have been fine if the police tackled him to the ground and otherwise used force. The arrest was stupid and should have never happened but it sure looked legal to me. Though I do admit that's from an American perspective. And I have long decided to ignore claims of racial abuse without evidence. Too many Jussie Smollet's and Bubba Wallace's out there for me to believe just based on someone's word.
And the fact that the people opposing the law allowed riots to happen takes away any and all sympathy I have for them. It has long been my belief that all riots are unjustifiable and that people that participate in them should be punished to the full extent of the law. Though their cause in this case might be a bit more justified then usual, I still want to see everyone of these people arrested, tried and convicted just because they rioted. I have no tolerance for rioters whatsoever.
In short, these people all deserve each other. Nothing that is happening here is justified in any way and I won't even try to defend any of the major players in this case. The proposed law is stupid, the police behavior was unjustified, Zecler was being a tool, and the rioters are just plain evil. I'm just glad it's happening somewhere else for once instead of happening in the United States.
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