‘Yellow-vest' boxer accused of beating police, stirs division
A man identified as a former boxing pro and suspected of viciously attacking riot police officers with his fists and feet during the latest yellow-vest protests in France has turned himself in and was placed in custody.
The suspect, identified by French media as Christophe Dettinger, was filmed beating up police officers at the weekend in Paris in videos that went viral on social media and created an outpouring of comments either praising or lambasting the man’s actions.
Clashes hit Paris for the eighth straight week of yellow-vest protests and prompted French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe to announce the mobilisation of around 80,000 police next weekend. He also said the French Government wants to sanction protesters who don’t officially register their protests.
The 37-year-old suspect is a former French champion in the light heavyweight category.
“I think he lost it. People can be impulsive; I can be, too,” his former coach, Laurent Boucher, told France Inter radio.
In a video message recorded before he surrendered to police, Dettinger acknowledged his wrongdoing but said he just tried to defend himself after he and his wife were tear-gassed by police.
“I have the people’s anger inside me. I see all these presidents, ministers and the State stuffing themselves, being incapable of leading by example,” Dettinger said.
“It’s always us, the little ones, who pay. French people, I’m with you wholeheartedly. We need to keep fighting peacefully.”
The suspect was involved in at least two fights in downtown Paris.
On one video, he can be seen aiming several punches at an officer trying to protect himself with his shield on a Paris bridge close to the National Assembly, the lower house of parliament. In another video, wearing a black hat and gloves, he kicks a police officer lying on the ground.
“What shocked me the most and I think for you it’s the same thing, it’s to see him hitting the poor policeman when he’s on the ground,” Boucher said.
“And especially when you know he’s a boxer. In boxing, you learn not to hit a man on the ground. Never. And he did it.”
Dettinger, known when he was boxing professionally as “the Gypsy of Massy,” after a town in the southern suburbs of Paris, was praised by many yellow-vest protesters, lauding his courage while criticising alleged police brutality during the protests.
“Even if Christophe Dettinger is not somebody very famous, we can say that a champion is standing by our side,” wrote Yasin Aslan, a Facebook user.
The French boxing federation condemned the suspect’s “shameful and unacceptable behaviour”.