In a Paris suburb, young people learn how to handle discriminatory police stops

When police shot dead a teenager of Arab origin during a traffic stop near Paris last month, it triggered riots across France – and brought the long-standing issue of racial profiling by French police back into the spotlight. In one Parisian suburb, a former police officer is aiming to teach young people how to defend their rights during identity checks.

A police search in in a priority security zone in Saint-Denis, a suburb to the north of Paris, on July 30, 2013. © Fred DUFOUR / AFP

"It's 8 in the morning. Question: why do the police have the right to stop Kevin? One – it's their job. Two – he's committed an offence. Three – they have orders to. Four – they felt like it."

Participants call out their answers as Fanta Kébé, a former police officer, quizzes them on what they've just learned. At a workshop organised last weekend by non-profit organisation Lol'idays in the southern Paris suburb of Vitry-sur-Seine, she has spent two days coaching these young people on what to do if – or when – they're stopped by police.

The guidance ranges from understanding the legal grounds for police checks to specific advice on how to behave.

"In a preventative police check, that's how you ask the officer the reason you’ve been stopped – by asking: 'what is the threat to the safety of persons or property in the place I am located?' It’s a very formal phrase," Kébé tells the group.

One man remarks: "It sounds litigious."

Kébé agrees. "It sounds so litigious that they'll wonder if you might be a lawyer. But if they just tell you 'well...', it's racial profiling."

A long-running pattern

The French government vigorously resisted accusations of discriminatory policing in the wake of the shooting of Nahel Merzouk, the 19-year-old whose death sparked a week of rioting at the end of June.

After the killing UN experts, among others, said they were concerned that French police target ethnic minorities with excessive identity checks, discriminatory searches and racist language.

"Any accusation of racism or systematic discrimination by law enforcement in France is baseless... Any ethnic profiling by law enforcement is banned in France," the Foreign Ministry stated in response, insisting that efforts had been stepped up to crack down on such practices.

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The people attending the workshop in Vitry tell a different story. One young man said he had joined the workshop "to know why sometimes the police react to my friends differently when they're not white like me". 

"None of the white people have been stopped, while my black and Arab friends have been pinned down and searched when they haven't done a thing," another said.

Former police officer Fanta Kébé conducts a workshop on police stops and civil liberties, in Vitry-sur-Seine outside Paris. © Sylvie Koffi/RFI

Statistics support their stories. A 2017 investigation by France's civil liberties ombudsman, the Défenseur des Droits, found that "young men perceived to be black or Arab" were 20 times more likely to be subjected to police identity checks than the rest of the population.

Out of a sample of more than 5,000 people, 80 percent of such men said they had been stopped in the past five years, compared to 16 percent of other demographics.

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"What you're telling me is unfortunately very common," Kébé replies to the participants who describe seeing police treatment vary along racial lines.

"You didn't get stopped, your white friend neither. It was black and Arab people. Because those people, let's be honest, are seen by the national police as automatic criminals."

David Dreux, a serving police officer in Vitry, acknowledges that's how many young people in France's suburbs perceive it. 

"They have a particular image of the police," he told RFI's Sylvie Koffi. "For them, it just means racial profiling and police violence. Everything else we do in terms of prevention and community policing is just put aside." 

How-to guide to police stops

Kébé, who like Dreux is black, spent 11 years in the police force. Now she works as a journalist, writing about alleged police abuses, and as an educator on civil liberties.

"During my career, I observed that neither young people nor not so young people fully understood their rights when it comes to law enforcement, that they were subjected to police checks and didn't know about their most fundamental rights," she says in a video on her Twitter profile.

"The aim of this training is for all participants to end up with plenty of knowledge about the rights they have during a police identity check."

Inscrivez-vous à la 2ème session de formation gratuite "vos droits face aux #policiers lors d'un #Contrôle d'identité du 21-22 juillet. Lien d'inscription dans ma bio 👍🏿#ViolencesUrbaines #ViolencesPolicieres #discrimination #menzil #lestraitres #Nanterre pic.twitter.com/MzPBWYdo0G

— Fanta KÉBÉ (@NENE_KB) July 13, 2023

That includes knowing how to stand up for yourself, but not escalating the situation. Part of the workshop involves reviewing real-life interactions participants have had with the police and discussing what could have gone differently.

"For a start, violence is out. You shouldn't have run and he shouldn't have got violent, that's for sure," Kébé tells one young man who ended up in a police station accused of "outrage à agent public", or disrespecting public authority – in this case, the officer who stopped him.

"Did you insult him? No, so that's made up. But nonetheless, you should have stopped. Yes, of course you should," she insists over exclamations from the group.

"He stopped you, so you don't run. Especially if you haven’t done anything wrong. Don't run. But you can file a complaint for violence, at a different police station."