On the morning of Friday 9 October 2026, Thomas Portes, MP for Seine-Saint-Denis (La France insoumise), publishes a 19-second video on X: “Watch carefully. Share everywhere. A police officer strikes a man on the ground in the head by kicking him” (translated). The video bears two texts overlaid by its first publisher: “A police officer kicks a protester on the ground in the head” and “Thursday 8 October act IV” (translated).
It shows a wide square lined with trees with yellow leaves, where helmeted police officers, baton in hand, disperse a crowd of running young people; flags are visible in the distance. A man dressed in black, his head covered, is lying alone on the road. A police officer running past him kicks him at head level, then keeps running; the man then raises himself onto one elbow. The video is replayed in slow motion. It shows neither what preceded the man’s fall nor what happens to him afterwards.
What is missing to confirm
- The place: no shop sign, street name or monument can be read. The date comes from the text overlaid by the publisher (“Thursday 8 October act IV”, translated); it is confirmed by no other source.
- An independent second source (media outlet, authority) describing this scene: the general press search of 2026-10-09 found only the knee strike at the place de la Bastille, a different scene (a man held upright by several police officers, not a man alone on the ground). Local press not read, as the town is unknown.
- The man’s condition, a complaint or a referral to the IGPN (police internal affairs): no source.