Social scientists decry police violence

A group of social scientists has denounced what they see as a rising tide of police violence in France after the public prosecutor dropped a case against policemen accused of harassing a researcher.

Fourteen researchers published a letter in the Libération newspaper on 25 June, declaiming what they call increasingly heavy-handed tactics by the police.

“The proliferation of arbitrary arrests and abusive imprisonment after demonstrations by students and colleagues—at which police have been able to show their hatred of intellectual workers, and sometimes add racist, sexist and homophobic abuse—has led us to a collective response,” they said.