French Police Probed in Accidental Deaths of Minority Youths

[Der]

French police probed in riot case

The two boys are still remembered in ethnic minority communities

Two French police officers have been placed under formal investigation over the death of two youths in an incident which prompted weeks of rioting.

The officers face possible charges over allegedly failing to help the boys, who died at a power sub-station while running away from police near Paris.
An internal police inquiry confirmed they were being chased - which the authorities had initially denied.
The deaths in 2005 sparked three weeks of riots in poor suburbs across France.
The rioting - in which thousands of cars were torched - highlighted the disaffection of many ethnic minority French youths.
Zyed Benna, 17, and Bouna Traore, 15, were electrocuted while hiding in a sub-station in Clichy, a north-eastern suburb of Paris, in October 2005.


2005 UNREST IN FIGURES

9193 cars burnt
2,921 arrests
21 nights of riots

Source: French police

Last December the internal police report - based on radio exchanges at the time - confirmed that officers had been pursuing the boys.
The report said no action had been taken to ensure their safety in the site, including alerting the power provider - although it said this might not necessarily have saved their lives.
The investigating judge must decide whether there is enough evidence to try the police officers on charges of "failing to assist people in danger" - a crime in France. The charge carries a maximum penalty of five years in jail. Three other officers are still being questioned over the incident.

Source: BBC NEWS | World | Europe | French police probed in riot case

As the saying goes, "there ain't no sense in being stupid unless you show it once in a while." The two "ethnic" boys resisted arrest, ran from police officers, and were stupid to hide in a live substation literally crackling and humming with thousands of volts of deadly electricity, and yet the officers chasing them are being put on trial for "neglecting to help them." I have my doubts that, if the boys had been native Frenchmen, both the reaction and the trials would be less serious, if not non-existent. The French are looking past the obvious reasons why the foreign immigrant population in France are literally destroying the country that is trying so hard to integrate them. Instead of placing the blame on two police officers clearly only doing their duties, maybe the French could pull their collective heads out of the sand and look at the real reasons why the ethnic minorities are setting France ablaze.

[Susi]

So ridiculous.. the reaction of the crowd and of the people doing this investigation.. what are the officers supposed to do when they are chasing down a criminal? "Oh here, have some tea and crumpets?" or more culturally correct "Here, have a baguette and some wine?"

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