Police officers with a track record that aims to be impeccable. This is what emerges from the testimonies and personality investigations presented, Monday, November 9, on the first day of the trial of the three civil servants fired for having beaten music producer Michel Zecler, in Paris, on November 21, 2020, when they wanted to arrest him for not wearing a mask. Sent to the Paris criminal court for aggravated violence and forgery of public documents, the three accused, Pierre Plantier, Philippe Tondeux and Aurélien Laperson, did everything to highlight their qualities.
“Discreet, sociable, very pleasant to live with”: the personality of Pierre Plantier, 37, is summed up with these few words by the first personality investigator who testifies at the hearing. “He got along very well with his colleagues, he is described as reliable and stable, he does not have the soul of a leader, he carries out orders perfectly,” adds the investigator, who adds that it is a “quality workforce who has always given full satisfaction to his superiors”. According to his colleagues, “he knows how to defuse conflicts,” she emphasizes.
“I am not someone who wants to make things worse,” confirms the accused on the stand. Black slicked back hair, beard dotted with white hairs, beige jacket over orange t-shirt, the thirty-year-old from Var, father of a little girl, speaks about his involvement in the police at the stand: "I wanted to be like my grandfather". This is the reason why he finally reoriented himself towards this profession that he “idealized”, after a professional baccalaureate in the hotel and restaurant industry. Today, he is suspended with continued pay and works as a firefighter in Toulon.
“Rustic but loyal”
The oldest accused, Philippe Tondeux, 50 years old, without children, passed the peacekeeping competition at the age of 23, after a "classic school career", as an "obedient" student, due to the education and values he received, according to the personality investigator, with a mother who had an "aversion to indiscipline". “He tries to be more intelligent than strong in his police practice,” underlines the personality investigator, who reports that his colleagues describe him as “rustic but loyal”.
In 2020, Philippe Tondeux had the status of brigadier and had operated as team leader in the 17th arrondissement of Paris for ten years, in a “charismatic” and “diplomatic” manner. But his colleagues also note in this erudite "mentor", "fond of jazz", a "growing feeling of insecurity", which has transformed into "hypervigilance", in particular because of "acute stress", felt during the attacks in 2015 and the yellow vest demonstrations. “It’s him who speaks of a certain paranoia,” underlines the personality investigator. For one of his police friends, it is only a “reflex” of the profession: “We have a keen eye, we always look behind us”.
Another police officer, who worked under the orders of Philippe Tondeux in the territorial contact brigade, describes him as a "social, punctual and serious guy", who "never had a conflict with anyone". Philippe Tondeux "was there to calm things down", "so that we didn't act like madmen, angry dogs", continues the official.
“I fought racism in law school”
“He was a father to us. I am from the islands, from Guadeloupe, he dreamed of going there. We were very close, I was often his driver, he never made waves,” explains this black police officer. The president of the court took the opportunity to bounce back: did the accused make racist remarks? No, assures his former colleague. The question is central in this affair, because Michel Zecler claims to have been treated as a "dirty nigger" by the police officers who beat him, which the officials have always formally denied.
If the investigating judges considered that "the incriminating evidence" was "insufficient to establish the racist dimension of this violence", a departmental criminal court can uphold this type of offense, if it emerges from the proceedings. This is the intention of the civil party lawyers, who are trying to explore this aspect with this witness, while the defense, who summoned him, pushes him to say what he thinks with frankness. “Mr. Tondeux is not racist, that is clear and clear. He has never made any remarks towards anyone, or people he has controlled,” declares his former colleague.
Invited to speak on the stand immediately afterwards, the accused denies just as much: "Racism is putting someone in a box based on their color. I know that I am not racist and I am proud of it." “I fought racism when I was in law school!” he exclaims, regaining verve after a few tears shed at the mention of his three weeks in pre-trial detention, at the Santé prison, in Paris, then at Fleury-Mérogis (Essonne). As for his political opinions, he claims to have “always had left-wing ideas”.
“Endowed with discernment”
The subject is more widely discussed with the third accused. This time, it is the general counsel who asks questions about racism to the partner of Aurélien Laperson, 29, described by his peers as “serious” and “endowed with discernment” despite his young age. The representative of the public prosecutor returns to an exchange of messages within the couple. It dates from August 2020 and was found in the accused's phone.
“I forbid you from becoming racist,” she wrote to him, while he told her: “I am disgusted that all these bastards are accepted in France and that nothing is done” and “all the bastards who fuck up are all the same.” “I know, but don’t generalize, it leads to racism,” she insists in this written conversation. To which he replies: "I'm not generalizing. If I was generalizing, I would have immediately said 'Blacks and Arabs'."
“This question still arises today at the hearing. What can you tell us about this exchange? Could you have had this fear that it would drift?”, asks the general advocate. But the witness's response remains evasive: "I don't know why we had this conversation." “I made the connection between the police and racism but I was not talking about the person of Aurélien,” she assures. The attorney general insists and recalls that the exploitation of the accused's phone revealed that he had a photomontage mocking the death of George Floyd, on May 25, 2020 in the United States, while a police officer was immobilizing him. “These are not jokes that he makes on a daily basis,” assures his companion.
“Deeply, I am not racist”
These “jokes”, the person concerned assures at the bar that he regrets them today. For Aurélien Laperson, who in passing uses the famous phrase attributed to the comedian Pierre Desproges ("We can laugh at everything but not with just anyone"), "it's still humor", although "out of place", defends the accused. “In no way does it define me,” he assures. “Deeply, I am not racist, that does not represent my values,” he insists again. If he admits half-heartedly that racism can exist in the police, he notes a “negative aspect” within this profession, now that he is prohibited from exercising it, in accordance with his judicial control.
He, who suffered physical and moral abuse from his parents and his stepfather during childhood, claims to have "been confronted with violence in three years of his career". “The police are hated everywhere,” he declares, referring to the yellow vest movement and the period of the Covid-19 epidemic. Before blurting out: “This job was a childhood dream. But it’s also the one that destroyed me.”
