3 French police officers suspended for beating Black man

Nov. 27 (UPI) -- Three French police officers have been suspended after security camera footage surfaced of them beating a Black man over the weekend.

Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said Thursday on Twitter that he directed the Paris police chief to suspend the officers.

The order was issued after local online news outlet Loopsider published video camera footage on Thursday of the three police officers beating a Black man, who has been identified as music producer Michel Zecler, on Saturday night.

The officers are seen in the video pummeling Zecler with their fists and police batons over the course of the five-minute beating.

Zecler told Loopsider that he was walking to his studio in a wealthy area of Paris and quickly ducked inside when he saw a police cruiser because he wasn't wearing a mask, which is mandatory, prior to when the beating began, The New York Times reported.

Darmanin said the images of the beating were "unspeakable and unbearable" and that an investigation has been opened into the incident and that he hoped it would soon be completed.

"If justice finds fault, I will dismiss these three policemen from the national police force because they would no longer be worthy of wearing the uniform of the republic," he said in a tweet.

Zecler told reporters Thursday as he arrived at police headquarters to file a complaint that he wants the officers to be punished according to the law.

"People who should have been protecting me attacked me," he said, the BBC reported. "I did nothing to deserve this."

Zecler was initially charged with resisting arrested but the case was later dropped.

He said he was the victim of racism.

Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo said via Twitter she was "shocked by this intolerable act."

"All the consequences must be drawn from these exceptionally serious facts," she said. "The rule of law is not negotiable. All my support to Michel."

The incident occurred amid mounting criticism and following protests against the French government's push to pass legislation to ban distributing pictures or footage of police where the officers can be identified.