2023-12-16 14:04:00
Sketch of justice: “I hit no one, Mr. Justice”
Haven’t seen the little brother…
But what started this sequence? That Tuesday, Augustin entered the Stockel Square gallery in Woluwe-Saint-Pierre (Brussels). He has a cap screwed on his head. At 19, he looks 15. He holds hands with his little brother whom he has just picked up from school – the scene is filmed by the gallery’s surveillance cameras. A police inspector who is chatting with a shopkeeper clearly does not see the same thing. He describes a young man with a hood and his hands in his pockets. In his version, there is no little brother accompanying him…
The police officer then goes towards Augustin, “thinking he has a problem”, he says. A brief exchange follows and a look that does not please the inspector. The latter asks the young man to present his identity card. The person concerned balks and asks why several times. Before reaching into his jacket to take out his wallet. At this moment, neither one nor two, the young man is pinned to the ground by the inspector and his colleague.
Sketch of justice: when a defendant is absent, his judicial past speaks for him
“This does not do justice to the police function”
His glasses are broken – without them he can’t see anything. He is dragged towards the police car. His little brother is left alone in the gallery. We must point out that Augustin, the child of a mixed couple, has a dark complexion.
“It does not mean anything. He was calm. This is an unreasonable use of force. This does not do justice to the police function,” says Augustin’s lawyer, who is a civil party. The mother is present at the hearing. She watched helplessly as her son was degraded. “He was already an introverted child; he became more withdrawn. After the incident, he never picked up his brother from school again. He no longer went to his dad’s house,” she describes. “Aggression is not part of our education. We tried to raise our children to become independent”. The sight of a uniform remains difficult for Augustin.
We feel the deputy of the King’s prosecutor embarrassed around the edges. “It’s a file that bores me,” he said spontaneously. “There is food and drink.” What puzzles him is the reason for the police check. What justified the police intervention? Nothing, except the appearance of the young man. “It was a facial check, because of a dirty-mouthed crime,” says the representative of the prosecution. “It particularly bothers me,” he repeats.
Accustomed to outrages and rebellions against police officers
The prosecution then engages in a curious contortion, first waving – virtually – a large finger towards the victim. “When you ask to show your identity card, you have to do it. Right away. He was late. Administrative arrest is justified while the identity of the person is verified.”
But the way? The police performed a “sweep”, a leg lock to make the young man fall. The magistrate goes off on a tangent: “The police arrest was carried out in a heavy-handed manner”. He doesn’t say: “violent”. Regarding the proportional nature of the reaction, he just specifies that “it was lacking a little”… He knows what he is talking about: he is used to continuing outrages and rebellions against the forces of order, with bites, blows foot or fist, insults…. “Here, that wasn’t the case,” he says.
Sketch of justice: she offers the police commissioner an envelope with the newlyweds’ kitty
A suspension of the sentence, to avoid registration in the record
The deputy does not believe the two defendants who claim not to have seen the little brother in the gallery. “It doesn’t hold water,” he said. “They had an obligation to care for the minor child. He stayed alone for 7 minutes.”
The prejudices are therefore established, said the magistrate “in his soul and conscience”. But we almost have the impression that it is with regret. He also curiously summarizes the facts: “If the intervention was difficult to justify, it was justified but was carried out in a muscular manner”.
For the trouble too, the floor squirms. The trial comes six years after the events, he emphasizes. An unreasonable delay. The substitute could plead a simple conviction (without penalty). “But it would go on their criminal record,” he said. Hence the request for a simple suspension of the sentence for the two police officers who have no criminal record. If they keep quiet for 5 years, it will be as if nothing happened. As if this affair had never existed.
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