Riots broke out in Paris as hundreds of people marched in the streets after a 22-year-old black man was violently sodomized by police.
Video footage taken from a mobile phone shows 4 officers stopping a youth worker named Theo in a suburb of Paris last week.
One officer threw the man on the ground, yanked down his jogging pants, and anally raped him with an expandable baton as the other 3 officers looked on.
The attack was so violent that he tore a 4-inch gash in the man’s rectum. Blood was still visible on the ground days after the attack on Thursday in the Saint-Seine-Denis region, northeast of Paris.
One officer was arrested and charged with aggravated rape and assault on Sunday. The other three officers were suspended pending investigation of unnecessary use of force. All 4 officers deny the charges.
Violence erupted around Paris after the horrific mobile footage went viral online. Most of the demonstrators are disadvantaged youths and immigrants from impoverished areas north of Paris, where unemployment is 30 percent.
Police made 17 arrests overnight. Rioters set fire to a school nursery and car dealership.
French President François Hollande visited Theo in the hospital where he is recovering after emergency surgery to repair his colon.
Hollande tweeted, praising Theo’s dignity and assuring justice will be served.
