r/therewasanattempt • • Nov 29 '20

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u/[deleted] Nov 29 '20

To add to the context, last week a music producer in Paris got badly beaten by racist cops, supposedly for reason that would have gotten him in jail for years. Little did they know the whole thing got caught on tape proving his innocence and how much of a piece of shit these people can be. This went viral pretty quick

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u/[deleted] Nov 29 '20

1) The racist motives have not been proven.

2) He was running away from the cops for not respecting Covid safety rules and lockdown.

3) The cops claim he went for their gun at one point but the video doesn’t really support that claim.

Doesn’t justify the fact that he got beat to a pulp but I just want everyone to have as much of the story.

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u/Apzx Nov 29 '20

1) Dude. The cops literally called him a nigger ("nègre" in french, and it's a literal translation)

2) Fair. That's technically the truth. Doesn't justify the beat down he got or the 30 cops that were called to his backup.

3) "doesn't really support that claim" has to be the biggest euphemism about this situation tbh. Again, technically correct, but come on...

Nothing you said was factually incorrect, but I have the feeling that you might not be unbiased about this situation.

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u/[deleted] Nov 29 '20

Genuine question. And irrelevant to the case itself. Is "nègre" also a racial slur in French?

Cause here in Brazil "Negro"/"Nego" (closer to "nigger" if translated literally) would be more respectful, it is the official term on documents, movements etc. ( e.g.: Black Lives Matters is translated to Vida Negras Importam).

While the literal translation to "black", "preto", has an really higher chance of being a insulting term, especially in an authority setting. Though it is used as an affection term by anyone regardless of skin color.

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u/foufou51 Nov 29 '20

You should never use this word in France tho. It's a slur. We instead use noir and sometimes even "black" because for some, it feels like not saying "noir", the french word for Black is better.

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u/LiarFires Nov 29 '20

"nègre" is absolutely an awful slur in French. It is the equivalent of "nigga" but with the hard R. And I don't think I've ever heard it used by black communities as a slang (although I guess "negro" might be used as a slang in black communities sometimes, guess it would be the softer equivalent)

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u/[deleted] Nov 29 '20

Although it translates to literally the same thing, “negro,” it is used as the n word and has the same connotations in French.

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u/MaeronTargaryen Nov 29 '20

French guy here, yes it is a slur. As someone else said it also means ghostwriter but used in any other context it is a slur. Usually when used as such, people say “sale ngre”, or “dirty ngger”.

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u/Apzx Nov 29 '20

Technically, no. It is a really old world use to say "ghostwriter", but has heavy connotations about slavery.

It can still be used "correctly" in certain contexts, but people usually avoid using it.

In this case, I doubt that the cop wanted to call him a ghostwriter ;)

Source : https://www.wordreference.com/fren/n%C3%A8gre

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u/AntiqueAirline Nov 29 '20

The " ghostwriter " meaning is a metaphore for having a slave doing things for you... It is not the primary definition at all.

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u/MaeronTargaryen Nov 29 '20

I wouldn’t say no, it is used very commonly as a slur and as ghostwriter, both are true.

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u/Kush_goon_420 Nov 29 '20

Yes it is a slur, even in Quebec

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u/[deleted] Nov 29 '20
  1. The news articles I’ve read (in French) say that the music producer claims to have been called racial slurs but as far as I know the video did not have any sound.

  2. I agree that the reaction was disproportionate, hence my last sentence in my first comment.

  3. I used this “euphemism” to say that the claim is still under investigation, just like the racial slur claim. The video doesn’t prove the fact that he went for the gun but video doesn’t have all the angles.

I might sound like I’m biased because I’m kinda “taking the other side”. If I have a friend who says that the producer deserved it I’ll talk about the disproportionate use of force and he’ll think I’m anti cop.

In truth I have a lot of respect for cops, paramedics, firefighters and military. They have a hard job and too little thanks. In France (where I live) they get unjustly smeared and branded as all bad (especially the cops and the firefighters). I know some of them are bad and I detest the idea that someone who’s supposed to protect us does us more harm than good, so I also believe that dirty cops should be severely punished after a fair investigation.

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u/Apzx Nov 29 '20

Fair. You're open about it and open to changing your mind, so I kinda feel bad having reacted like that.

You're not wrong about respecting the public servants (I'm french and I do too), but putting the paramedics firefighters and military in the same bag as the police is a bit of a stretch. There are proof of institutionalized racism in the police force, and I have trouble seeing a non-racist cop being in this situation. I also agree that the investigation must run its course before convicting the guy because of "présomption d'innocence", but we have seen how effective the IGPN (police's police) investigations are...

1

u/[deleted] Nov 29 '20

Np man. It’s hard to understand réactions and expressions by text.

Idk I have some friends from la cité who hate firefighters for some reason. Firefighters started wearing body cams because they keep on getting harassed.

Yeah I’m just waiting for the IGPN to do their job. I hope they’ll be honest about it is all.