Police violence on trial
Several research papers focusing on the connection between police and democracy show how the law both regulates and constrains the use of violence by the police, and how this law and the very functioning of police, judicial and political institutions give the police officers margins of violence use outside the law. Even though police officers are sometimes tried and convicted, victims and activists denounce “police impunity” and breaches of the rule of law – perceived as democracy’s guarantor – in terms of treatment of police violence by courts. The demonstration is based on the observation of the appeal of police officer Damien Saboundjian at the Paris assize court in 2017. We show the improbability of questioning the version of the accused police officer and the legitimacy of his use of violence, within the court. The article puts the following hypothesis: the conviction, even exceptional, based on the rupture of a balance of power relations between justice and the police, within a specific configuration that is the trial of a police officer.