There is much to learn about the practice of policing from the example of the French authorities’ “management” of the Champions League final (“Uefa, the police, French ministers... all peddled gross lies. Only fans prevented disaster”, Comment.) There is more to learn from watching The Monopoly of Violence (Un pays qui se tient sage), an award-winning film by David Dufresne that makes extensive use of amateur footage taken during anti-government yellow vest protests highlighting the role of citizen journalists in documenting events while inviting us to reflect on policing in modern democracies.
The rise of the yellow vest movement and the regular protests was a turning point, says Dufresne, when “suddenly we realised that police violence was systemic”, not just “a series of unfortunate blunders”. Add to this the image of a young woman forced to the ground by Metropolitan police officers, on her stomach, hands pinned behind her back, a policeman’s boot inches from her face – arrested for participating in a peaceful vigil for a young woman murdered by a Met officer. So we know we are not being policed by consent, not in France or the UK.
Judy Seymour
London NE2
