What is this “police vs neighborhood” boxing match in Brussels?

“A beating of prejudice. ” THE Mima museum/gymnasium, in Brussels, Belgium, offers until May 28 a temporary exhibition on the world of boxing, entitled “Local heroes”. In connection with this exhibition, several nights are organized every Thursday, between 6 and 10 p.m. During the one to be held on April 6 on the theme “police & neighborhood”, amateur boxers from the police and neighborhoods will compete in the ring set up in the heart of the museum. When the organizers plead the desire to erase the prejudices between police and citizens, citizens, precisely, denounce the indecency of this event in a context of increasing police violence.

Forget “the label we may have stuck on each other”

According to the Mima, the postulate of “Local heroes” is “a reinterpretation of the ancient Greek gymnasium” as a “place dedicated to the education of youth in the values ​​of the city through sport and the arts”. And it is for this reason that a real boxing ring has been installed in the museum. The idea of ​​the designers of “Local heroes” being to make their exhibition alive by devoting spaces, but also events to the practice of boxing.

And on Thursday, the Mima therefore invited a dozen amateur boxers from Molenbeek to face a dozen other amateurs from the ranks of the local police in the ring. “Here we see boxers in the ring with their own qualities and then we forget the label that we may have stuck to each other”, advance the organization who sees in this exhibition an opportunity to “beat prejudices”.

So no, it will not be for one or the other to put his opponent KO since it is more training than real fights. “The goal for the opponents is to develop their technical qualities and the art of combat. There is therefore no designated winner at the end of the meeting”, specifies the museum on its website.

Nevertheless, the initiative sparks outrage on Instagram and other social networks, in particular of people claiming to be “activists, artists and families of victims of police violence”. “What prejudices are we talking about? Simple relationship problems? From an unjustified apprehension from one group to another? “Ask the signatories of the post. For them, the approach is even counter-productive since confronting police and neighborhood in a ring “supports the idea of ​​two opposing clans”.

A “com operation” of the police

The opponents of this meeting highlight above all “a context in which police violence is only increasing”, to justify their approach. Claiming that “opponents are brought to an equal footing in a ring” is “indecent”, they claim. For the signatories of the request for cancellation of the “police & district” matches, this night is only a “com’ operation” of the police to “restore its image”.

A largely tarnished coat of arms by a report from the Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (Cerd) of the United Nations Organization (UN) which, in 2021, was concerned about the use of ethnic profiling by the police. In the same report, the Cerd expressed concern about “deaths in custody” and “ill-treatment” inflicted by police officers “on ethnic minorities, migrants and asylum seekers”. Through this committee, the UN strongly recommended that the Belgian State “take measures” by sanctioning the police officers found guilty or by promoting ethnic diversity within the police.


source site