A video both shocking and intriguing. In the images, which would have been filmed in the basement of a metro in Spain, we see around twenty police officers heading towards a train, before violently pulling out several passengers. Once on the dock, they are beaten. With the video, the following description is accompanied: “A gang of scum makes a mess in the metro in Spain, a friend attends the scene”.
Posted on Sunday, the video has since been widely shared, with nearly 2,000 retweets and 4,000 likes. In the comments, many Internet users challenge the Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin to ask him for similar treatment in France. “The Spanish CRS police are impressive. But why don’t we have that at home? “Asks a user. But this video was not shot in Spain, and its context is not shown. What really happened that the metro passengers were so violently taken out of the train by the police?
FAKE OFF
On first listening to the video, a first element calls out. The language spoken has nothing to do with Spanish. It is therefore likely that the scene does not take place in Spain in any case. After several minutes of research, we find the trace of the subway with the white roof present on the images: it is that of Bucharest, in Romania. Moreover, even if it is difficult to clearly read the equipment of the forces of order, the letters on the men’s backs correspond to the uniforms of the Romanian gendarmerie, “Jandarmeria”.
But what happened in Bucharest to arrive at such a scene? Thanks to the reverse image search, we find a trace of the news in question, which dates back to October 2, 2020. It is actually an intervention by the gendarmerie during a football match. between the two local teams from Bucharest: Steaua Bucharest and Dinamo Bucharest.
An intervention against hooligans
From the Romanian news channel Digi 24, the gendarmerie justified its forceful intervention at the time: “According to the information held, it appears that some of the supporters of the Steaua and Dinamo teams intended to attack each other”. Before adding: “The gendarmes of the device tried to pursue them, knowing very well that each time they arrive in public transport, there are all kinds of problems. The gendarmes asked them to leave the metro line because they caused panic among the passengers present, at that time two gendarmes were attacked, pulled inside the metro by these people”. According to the gendarmerie, some supporters even carried bladed weapons and smoke bombs, which justified their intervention.
Moreover, this is not the first time that the video shot in Bucharest has been taken out of context. Most of the time, it is diverted for the purpose of political recovery. In November 2020, for example, the publication was relayed with the following text: “The police in the metro of #Paris in the face of Muslims without masks who spat on them”.