“It Was a Screwup”: Alain Robert Responds to Backlash Over His Video About French Police
After calling French police “more than cool” in the middle of a wave of high school protests, Alain Robert spoke with Vertige Media about the backlash. The climber acknowledges the terrible timing, apologizes, and explains what he says he actually meant.
At first glance, it was a feel-good moment. On Sunday, September 27, Alain Robert once again free soloed the TotalEnergies tower in La Défense, climbing without a rope or protective gear. A few days later, the “French Spiderman” posted a video on Instagram showing what happened when he reached the top: police officers waiting for him with smiles, shaking his hand, asking how he was doing. Across the video, in red letters, Robert wrote: “The cops in France are more than cool.”
The timing could hardly have been worse. Thousands of people — the vast majority of them minors, according to France’s Interior Ministry — had just been detained in connection with a nationwide high school protest movement, while several violent police interventions were under investigation. The contrast immediately drew criticism. Many commenters pointed out how out of touch the post seemed. “This is really not the time to say French police are cool...” one wrote. “oh ok so maiming children and killing people is fine,” another responded. A third summed it up this way: “We’ll look elsewhere for thoughtful analysis.”
And the unease went beyond the latest high school protests. For years, United Nations bodies have repeatedly raised concerns about excessive use of force by French police, particularly during demonstrations.
But a few hours after posting the video, Robert still seemed completely unaware of how his message might come across. When one commenter simply wrote “ACAB” — “All Cops Are Bastards” — Robert replied: “Thank you very much!”
Oops, I did it again
“It was a screwup on my part,” Robert says immediately when we ask him about the collision between his post and the news. He says he only realized the scale of the high school protests after posting the video, as angry comments began piling up. Robert spends much of his time abroad and says he has not watched television in 13 years. He describes himself as genuinely disconnected from what was happening in France. “My only sources of information are the internet and YouTube,” he says. His algorithm, he explains, feeds him international news — Iran, Russia, Ukraine — while largely skipping France. “I didn’t know,” he repeats. Asked whether the broader debate over police violence in France goes back much further than the current protests, Robert acknowledges the blind spot. “It’s just a subject I don’t know as well,” he says. “Unfortunately, that’s my fault too.” His original message, he insists, was never meant as a broader assessment of French policing. He says he was simply describing his own experience. “I’ve never had any trouble with the police in France,” he says, contrasting that treatment with arrests abroad where, he says, he has been subjected to humiliating searches, beatings, and other mistreatment.
“Apparently there have been some disgusting abuses by French police,” he says. “Unfortunately, I’m angry with myself for not knowing about it. Otherwise I never would have posted something like that.”
Alain Robert
The interview also puts the La Défense encounter itself into clearer context. Robert says the officers who were waiting for him that Sunday came from Neuilly, and only one of them knew who he was. At first, the team was considering taking him into custody. They ultimately decided against it after Robert showed them screenshots documenting his climb.
Asked why he was so friendly with the officers at the top, Robert points to simple pragmatism. “I know I’ve just committed an offense,” he says. “I’m going to try to be cool with them. Being aggressive isn’t going to make things any better.” What about his celebrity? Robert has been climbing skyscrapers for more than 30 years. Could his fame affect how police treat him? At first, he qualifies his answer. Then he admits: “That’s possible too.” His claim becomes much narrower. “For this kind of offense, the police in France have always treated me well.” A far cry from the sweeping statement in his Instagram post.
The episode also reminds him of another controversy almost exactly two years earlier, on the same tower, this time involving Seb Bouin. Bouin faced heavy criticism over the unintended publicity the climb gave the oil company, later saying he had failed to think through the implications before posting about it on Instagram. “I missed it just as badly as Seb did with TotalEnergies and its climate record,” Robert says. He describes a pattern in which posts take on a life of their own, and says he found himself boxed in by a few words that, in his view, were never meant to express any “deep analysis.”
Back on the Ground
As the conversation continues and Robert begins looking at images from the recent protests in real time, his tone changes. “Now I’m stuck,” he eventually says. “You’re right.” His assessment becomes much harsher. “Apparently there have been some disgusting abuses by French police,” he says. “Unfortunately, I’m angry with myself for not knowing about it. Otherwise I never would have posted something like that.” He adds that he “probably wouldn’t have shaken the cops’ hands at the top” if he had known what was happening.
Then comes a direct apology. “I didn’t realize,” he says. “A thousand apologies.”
“I’m not someone who sucks up to cops”
Alain Robert
Robert does not disavow his own experience with police, but the scope of his original statement shrinks considerably. He sums up the contradiction himself: “I’m sitting here saying the French police are amazing, and then that same day I find out kids are being beaten, tear-gassed and all that. I don’t support that either.”
By then, however, his post had already begun to take on a meaning beyond his own personal experience. Alexis Landot, another highly visible figure in France’s urban climbing scene who is currently promoting his book Danser avec le vide, added a comment agreeing with Robert. The younger climber’s response reinforced the impression that Robert had been making a broader statement about French police, rather than simply describing his own encounters with officers during his climbs. Asked about Landot’s reaction, Robert initially suggests that the 26-year-old may not know much more about the current protests than he does. Then he catches himself. “I don’t know. [...] His response makes it sound like he doesn’t know what’s going on.”
By the end of the interview, Robert himself offers the much narrower version of the story that likely would have avoided the controversy in the first place. “I’m not someone who sucks up to cops,” he insists. Then he puts it plainly: “In this particular case, that day, they were nice. We’re not friends. We didn’t exchange phone numbers. We crossed paths. They treated me properly. That’s it.”
