PARIS, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- High cash donations and wide support in social media to Christophe Dettinger, a former French boxing champion filmed hitting anti-riot police officer during a "yellow vest" protest in Paris last weekend, triggered anger of government officials who denounced public support for violence.
On Monday, the boxer's relatives launched a fund raising operation in Leetchi, an online fundraising platform and a unit of insurer of Credit Mutuel Arkea bank, to help pay legal bills.
According to BFMTV news channel, the fund had been raised to about 120,000 euros (137,339 dollars) earlier on Tuesday.
Furthermore, "Support for Christophe Dettinger" website had more than 7,400 supporters, it added.
"There is a minority of our citizens who believe that violence is justified, give money for violence," Labor Minister Muriel Penicaud told CNews television.
"How can these people tell their children that violence is the answer... ? I can not understand. I can not accept," she added.
Images showed the ex-boxing champion knocking policemen down in a hail of punches and kicking them on the ground in a pedestrian bridge over the Seine.
Known as "The Gypsy From Massy," the 37-year-old man had turned himself in on Monday and remained in police custody.
In a video posted on his facebook page, he defended himself saying he had been gassed with his wife and friend.
To Marlene Schiappa, Secretary of State for Equality, the fundraising kitty was "a shame."
"Contributing to a fundraising kitty to support someone who attacked an officer is being an accomplice to these grave acts of violence," she told BMTV news.
In a twitter message, European Affairs Minister Nathalie Loiseau wrote "And a fundraising kitty for members of the security forces hurt by irresponsible (people), it would not be much more appropriate?"
"I am extremely shocked by the fund and its amount. The fact that one attacks the police by kicking an officer on the ground in a zone is not in the declared path of the demonstration is extremely serious. And we can not tolerate these acts," senator Julien Bargeton was quoted as saying by local media.
In the wake of deluge of officials' critics, Credit Mutuel Arkea bank, in a statement, said it closed the support page for the ex-boxing champion and pledged to ensure that the collected fund would be only used to finance legal bills.
The former professional boxer, who took part in Paris "yellow vest" protest last Saturday, risks five years in jail and a fine of 75,000 euros, according BFMTV television.
In November 2018, people angry at higher fuel tax began blocking roads, occupying highway tollbooths and staging rolling nationwide protests.
The movement has since turned into a bigger rebellion denouncing a squeeze on household spending, high living costs caused by President Emmanuel Macron's fiscal policy which they say favors the rich.
In the eighth weekend action in a row, anti-government protesters used a forklift truck to force their way into a government building compound, set cars ablaze near the Champs Elysees avenue and torched electric motors and garbage bins on the upmarket Boulevard, Saint Germain, posing a severe test to the government's policing tactics and political credentials to head off the social uprising.
