The images have been circulating on social networks for several days. The prefect of Guyana requested on Monday the opening of an administrative investigation targeting a police officer suspected of having uttered racist remarks during an intervention, the prefecture said on Tuesday.
The police officer was filmed during an intervention last August on Malouin Island, a district of Cayenne. The police officer addresses a group of people during an intervention. “My family has been in Guyana for 200 years, this is my home. We arrived in the same boat, but not on the same floor,” says the police officer, whose comments were filmed. The video, broadcast in recent days on social networks, sparked numerous reactions.
“Investigations in progress”
The prefect of Guyana, Antoine Poussier, requests “the opening of an administrative investigation into these facts” from the territorial director of the national police, indicated the prefecture.
Since the incident, “a meeting took place between the head of the territorial public security service and a representative of the neighborhood in September,” confirms the DTPN communications department. “Investigations are underway to determine everyone’s responsibilities,” adds the same source.
The Decolonization and Social Emancipation Movement demanded in a press release “a judicial investigation and appropriate sanctions” against the police officer. According to the union Union des Travailleurs Guyanais, these comments are only “the tree that hides the immensity of French racism”.