A group of French police officers are under investigation after photos of them at a “negro party” emerged on social media. The officers, based in a Paris suburb, are shown covered in black make-up and wearing frizzy-haired wigs at a party.
French newspaper Le Figaro reports that the officers are now under investigation by the Inspection Générale de la Police Nationale, France’s police watchdog.
Louis-Georges Tin, president of black group Conseil Representatif des Associations Noires, said: “If the police officers who have the responsibility to fight against racism are more busy making fun of black people than defending them, it could explain why things have advanced so little in this domain.”
He added: “The black people of this country don’t have to put up with racial profiling by day and blackface by night.”
The photos were originally posted by a woman on Facebook and eventually found themselves on the profile of racial equality campaigner Claudy Siar. He said that the person who posted the photos claimed they were “just for fun” after some friends decided to have a “negro party”.
Siar told Le Figaro: “She immediately took down the photos, but the screen grabs were already done. Convinced this was not a hoax, I decided to publish them.”
French police are no strangers to accusations of racism. Last year, a policeman in Val-D’Oise, north of Paris, made a series of racist remarks on social media that were then published by a website.
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