LONDON: Police in France are exploiting broad powers to issue spot fines against Arab youth as a new form of racial profiling, a new report has warned.
Published on Wednesday by Human Rights Watch, (RE)CLAIM and Maison Communautaire pour un Developpement Solidaire, the 60-page report documents a consistent theme of boys and young men from poor households receiving discriminatory fines for alleged offenses such as noise nuisance, littering and illegal discharge of sanitary liquids.
The on-the-spot fixed-penalty criminal fines are often issued when the young men, many of Arab extraction, are socializing outside their homes or playing sports with friends in local parks.
The recipients of such fines lack basic fair-trial guarantees, and the monetary amount is issued based on the subjective observations of police officers, the report said.
MCDS President Omer Mas Capitolin said: “These abusive fines have intensified discriminatory police harassment that drives children and young people out of public spaces by criminalizing them for their mere presence.
