Campaigners for the rights of black French people used a Barack Obama look-alike on Monday in video clips denouncing what they say is discrimination by police who stop and search black people more than others. The clips, which will be posted on the Internet, show an actor impersonating the US president-elect strolling through busy Paris streets when police stop and search him for no apparent reason.
Eight days before Obama's inauguration in Washington, with enthusiasm about the election of the first black US president still strong, the rights group CRAN hopes the films featuring the fake Obama will help get its message across.
"It's a trick of style that allows us to talk about the substance," Patrick Lozes, head of the CRAN, told reporters at a news conference held jointly with the look-alike, Michael Lamar. The American impersonator, who said he had a day job at a bank in Philadelphia, entertained onlookers during filming with presidential waves of the hand and cries of "Yes, we can!"
Official statistics from the French police do not record the ethnic origin of people stopped and searched on the street, so the allegation of discrimination against black and Arab people - often made by human rights groups - is hard to prove.
The CRAN commissioned a study by respected pollsters CSA in July last year that suggested a member of a "visible minority" was twice as likely to be stopped by police as a white person. "It's a shocking breach of equality and the authorities are indifferent," Lozes said.
A police spokesman denied there was discrimination in street identity checks, which are legal in France. He said police had good relations with the CRAN and were planning a seminar with the group on the issue of checks in coming months. But anti-racism groups and some police staff unions insist that there is a problem.