11 January 2017
Man burst into flames after cops use tear gas, Taser
By Peter Allen, The Sun
It is the latest in a series of films providing evidence of brutality being used by the cops around the city.
Taken in Place de la Nation in the east of the capital, the video shows the arrest of an unnamed man who was acting erratically.
“I feel like Tasering your mother. Why don’t you Taser?” he shouts at an officer, who replies: “No, I don’t want to.”
After using tear gas, a Taser is then used on the shirtless man, who was threatening to attack the police.
It appears that the electric shock provided by the Taser ignites the tear gas, resulting in the man momentarily catching fire.
The man, well over 6 feet tall, collapses to the ground and suffers severe wounds on his left arm.
In turn, the officer with the Taser shouts: “Guys, don’t use gas! Who the hell gassed him?!”
The scene was captured in July 2013 by a police body camera but has only just been leaked to social media and major news outlets.
There was said to be an internal police investigation into the incident, but nobody was brought to justice.
Another video published earlier this month showed an officer repeatedly punching a 14-year-old youth in a Paris suburb, and then waving his gun at the boys’ friends.
Last year there were riots in the same area when an arrested youth had a police truncheon rammed up his anus by patrol members.
An officer was also cleared of all wrongdoing this week over the death of an environmental activist killed by a stun grenade during a protest in 2014.
Paris police had no initial comment about the new Tasering video.
But while the video apparently shows heavy-handed police, another clip last week appeared to show a policewoman being beaten up by a street gang.
The horrifying incident took place in the early hours of New Year’s Day following an emergency call in Champigny-sur-Marne, to the southeast of the French capital.
