Laurent Nuñez refuses to talk about racism within the police force. When questioned this Sunday on the program "Franc-Jeu" about racist remarks recorded in a video involving, among others, a municipal police officer from Carcassonne, the Minister of the Interior acknowledged the existence of individual racist behavior, while firmly rejecting any generalization to the police and the gendarmerie.
“There is no racism in the police, nor in the gendarmerie,” Laurent Nuñez asserted to Benjamin Duhamel. The minister was being questioned about the Carcassonne affair, in which recordings containing racist, misogynistic, homophobic, and conspiratorial remarks have sparked significant political controversy in recent days.
The journalist asked him if such a statement risked appearing as a way of "minimizing a phenomenon that exists." Laurent Nuñez defended himself: "I am not minimizing isolated, individual incidents that lead to investigations and sanctions."
"There are racist police officers and gendarmes."
The minister, however, immediately added an important nuance: "There are racist police officers and gendarmes. But it is not possible to be racist in the police and the gendarmerie."
In other words, Laurent Nuñez distinguishes between individual behavior and the institution itself. According to him, when a police officer or gendarme makes racist remarks or adopts racist behaviors, procedures must be initiated: "When that happens, you are sanctioned, you are prosecuted, and sometimes there are even dismissals."
"Racism is a crime, we must not forget that," the minister continued, recalling that police officers and gendarmes are specifically tasked with "combating the perpetrators of racist offenses and crimes."
The Carcassonne affair reignites the debate
This statement comes a few days after the release of recordings made in Carcassonne, in which several municipal police officers made particularly violent remarks. The affair was condemned even within the ranks of the National Rally , with the new National Rally mayor of Carcassonne, Christophe Barthès, announcing the suspension of those involved and describing the remarks as "disgusting and inexcusable."
The incident has reignited a recurring debate about the existence of racism within law enforcement. Laurent Nuñez, for his part, takes a very clear stance: recognizing and punishing individually racist police officers, but categorically refusing to consider racism as a characteristic of the French police or gendarmerie.
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I think that, like many French people, the police simply don't like "idiots" in the broadest sense of the word. People who are disrespectful to the police, the Republic, and its regulations—but some prefer to call it racism; it sounds better!
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