The courtroom of the Rennes Criminal Court was full this Friday, September 20 to hear the deliberations. Aware of the significant pressure surrounding the trial of Commissioner Grégoire Chassaing, the president chose to detail for nearly thirty minutes the reasons that led her court to acquit the police officer. When the court’s decision was announced, tears flowed. Tears of joy in the Commissioner’s camp. Tears of sadness and anger on the cheeks of Steve Maia Caniço’s friends.
In June 2019, Officer Chassaing was in charge of the command on the evening of the Fête de la Musique in Nantes. On Quai Wilson, where around ten sound systems were set up, his mission was to turn off the music at 4 a.m. Commissioner Chassaing then went to each sound system to ask them to be turned off. However, two DJs decided to turn the music back on, causing a sudden increase in tension.
The police had decided to withdraw, wiping projectiles from some party-goers. Several police officers had responded with tear gas, making the air on the quays unbreathable. At least five people had fallen into the Loire at that precise moment. Only one had not come back up. It had taken several weeks to find the body of Steve Maia Caniço, a 24-year-old after-school activity leader who was taking part in the evening.
“We were prepared for this”
After the tragedy, his family and friends had placed great hope in the indictment for involuntary manslaughter of the police officer who commanded the police that night. Five years after that sad celebration, the acquittal of the commissioner has dashed the little hope they had left. “We had been preparing for this for a while. We knew very well what it would lead to. There are not many worlds in which we win, us, the common people,” reacted Alaskah, a friend of Steve as she left the court.
The same bitter feeling in Karow’s mouth. “It’s not very surprising. However, we were warned, we had put on parachutes, but we fell from a great height. In the country of human rights, there are only rights for the police, and the man can go and see elsewhere if justice is there.”
During the five days of the trial that took place in June, the lawyers for the civil parties had tried to provide evidence of the commissioner’s responsibility, considering that the use of tear gas had been “disproportionate”. “The disproportionate nature of the use of tear gas is not obvious. The two salvos were brief and very close together. We concluded that you could not prevent them”, declared the president Marianne Gil in a long deliberation justifying the acquittal. Supported by his superiors, the officer is now stationed in Lyon.
The last hopes of Steve’s relatives and family now lie in the hands of the prosecution, the only one who can appeal the commissioner’s acquittal.
Dejected, his friends retain the feeling of duty accomplished, despite the disappointment. “We did our best. We are aware that our fight was not in vain and that we did not do nothing. We spent five years relentlessly. We did not obtain justice. But we paid tribute to our friend and we will pay tribute again and again,” believes Karow. “We went all the way. Steve’s whole family too. It is a fight that was fought. For better or for worse, but it was fought. And it ends without a word,” continues his friend Alaskah. With what feeling? “Injustice,” she replies, moved to tears. The prosecution has ten days to appeal.