A 41-year-old Portuguese-Guinean woman has accused the Luxembourg police of using excessive force against her son during a police intervention to break up a fight on 27 December in the Gare area of Luxembourg City.
Crisalida dos Santos reached out to Contacto after seeing a video of the incident filmed by people who witnessed the fight and the arrest. The police confirmed the arrest, but maintained that in cases like this, the reaction of the officers involved always depends on the situation they find themselves in.
“In general, in such situations, the police’s priority is to calm tempers, separate the people involved and restore public order. In doing so, officers must also look after their own safety, as well as the safety of those present, whether they are involved or not,” the authorities said.
In the video circulating on social media, seen by Contacto, two young people can be seen involved in a fight on the ground, while several people film the scene. Two other people are also seen apparently trying to separate the young combatants. A few seconds later, the police arrived to break up the fight. The incident occurred on Avenue de la Liberté.
The footage shows one of the officers pulling away one of the boys involved in the fight, while another officer pins the other young man to the ground. At the same time, a third young man is also seen leaving the scene.
Some people try to approach, but are pushed away by one of the officers. Two officers are then seen leaning over the minor pinned to the ground. According to the images, the teenager was eventually taken away in a police car.
© Vídeo enviado ao Contacto pela mãe do detido. As imagens foram desfocadas para proteção dos envolvidos. / Edição: Martina Montrond Salgado
Speaking to Contacto, the visibly shaken mother says she was called on Saturday night to pick up her son at Bonnevoie police station. Her son has since been released after making a statement.
Dos Santos says that the police asked her son for information about the other boy involved and that he was not arrested. “I remember that the officer apparently entered the data that my son provided into the system and assured me that they would look at the surveillance videos to find out who started the fight, as well as contacting the other boy involved,” she said.
The mother of the detained minor claims that the police told her that the other boy involved in the fight “fled during the police intervention”. However, she believes that the images belie this claim.
In their reply to questions from Contacto, the police explained that the officers involved were on patrol in Rue de Strasbourg when they were alerted by passers-by about the brawl in the neighbouring street and rushed to the scene.
When they intervened, “one of the individuals was immobilised on the ground and the other fled”, the police wrote in an email. They also stated that the officers were “obliged” to keep other people away from the ensuing melee because they weren’t following their instructions and were “disturbing their intervention”.
Reinforcements had to be called in and two people were subjected to a body search, the police said.
© Vídeo enviado ao Contacto pela mãe do detido. As imagens foram desfocadas para proteção dos envolvidos. / Edição: Martina Montrond Salgado
“The minor involved in the fight was taken to the police station, his parents were informed and a report was drawn up,” the police explained, adding that it was only possible to ascertain that the youth was a minor after checking his identity.
Mother waiting for legal support
The boy’s mother says she is waiting for a lawyer to be appointed through one of the non-governmental organisations that support immigrants in Luxembourg, so that she can proceed with a formal complaint against the two officers involved in her son’s arrest. “I didn’t expect this kind of behaviour from the police,” she said.
The police said that anyone wishing to lodge a complaint against the actions of specific officers can do so with the Inspectorate General of Police.
According to dos Santos, her main concern was her son’s physical condition. “His lips are swollen from a punch he took from the other boy, which damaged his teeth, and he has several abrasions on his knees,” she explained.
She tried to seek medical help, initially at a Maison Médicale, which was closed, and then at the emergency room, which she says was full. She eventually decided to wait until the following morning and took her son to hospital on Sunday. He was advised by medical staff to rest, she said.
It was only after her son was home and receiving medication that she began to see videos of the incident on social media.
“If two minors were fighting, why was only one arrested? What is the need for two properly trained police officers to immobilise a teenager so aggressively, as if he were a highly dangerous criminal?” she asked.
The other young man involved in the brawl chased and provoked her son for some time, dos Santos said, eventually engaging him in a fight. He was unharmed when the police intervened.
Of Guinean and Portuguese nationality, the 41-year-old has lived with her family in Luxembourg for six years. Both she and her husband have stable jobs. The son involved in the incident turned 17 on 29 November, attends high school and plays football. “He’s always been a quiet boy and never got into trouble,” dos Santos said.
The mother recognises that the reporting process went smoothly and that the officers at the police station were polite. She plans to take action against the arresting officers primarily because of the psychological impact the episode has had on the young man. “My son is locked in his room, in pain, sad and traumatised by everything he’s been through,” she said.
(This article was first published by Contacto. Translated using AI, edited by Duncan Roberts)