A man, believed to be of Afghan origin, assaulted two female police in the city of Montbéliard after refusing to wear a mask in public.
The two female officers were conducting a foot patrol in the centre of the city on Saturday at around 11:15 am when they spotted a man not wearing a mask and, after speaking to him, were met with a middle finger in response.
Around 15 minutes later, the two officers returned along the street where they saw the migrant man again, still not wearing a mask. When he spotted the officers, he once again gave them the finger gesture.
The officers then decided to write the man a ticket. But the migrant refused to identify himself and became violent when one of the two officers tried to put him in handcuffs, L’Est Republicain reports.
During the attempted arrest, the migrant kicked both women in the face, one on the cheek and the other in the nose, the latter requiring four days’ injury leave. Both were hospitalised for a short period after the attack.
The Afghan migrant was sent to a psychiatric unit after making incoherent statements while in police custody.
The attack is not the first on French police attempting to enforce Wuhan coronavirus restrictions over the last year.
In March 2020, a woman claiming to be infected with the Chinese virus spat at French police during a routine check and called them “dirty whites” and stated: “I hope you will all die of Covid.” A local court later sentenced the woman to seven months in prison on several charges, including aggravated racism.
According to the French Ministry of the Interior’s statistical services, attacks on police in France have increased substantially over the last 20 years, with the number of attacks more than doubling, with an average of 85 incidents against public authority figures per day.
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