“The police are not there to be insulted, threatened or brutalized. And this also applies to the police! » thunders the president of the criminal court, Marc Fritsch. In front of him, two boys aged 18 and 19 cling sheepishly to the bar. In the box, detained, stands a third defendant aged around forty, well known to the courts with 19 mentions in his record. All were tried in immediate appearance, Tuesday 1is October, for violence committed against two gendarmes, on September 27, in La Réole.
In the afternoon, the soldiers were called by a municipal official. From his home, he has just seen four men, tools in their hands, violently knocking on the door of a neighboring house. He suspects an attempted burglary. Two gendarmes – a man and a woman – arrive on the scene and intercept one of the suspects, a teenager. In no time, they find themselves surrounded by his friends who distribute blows to free their friend. The soldiers escaped with one and two days of total incapacity for work.
“I was stupid”
“I reacted without thinking. Sorry for the term, I was stupid,” says one of the young defendants. “I recognize everything and I apologize,” his neighbor stammers. In the box, the forty-year-old, father of the first young person intercepted, remains silent.
“Concerning him, all the penalties have been tried”, annoys the prosecutor before demanding a very heavy sanction against this unemployed and long-time alcoholic man: four years in prison, including three years with continued detention. Against the two boys with difficult paths, punctuated by homes, foster families and other “struggles”, he asks for a firm year. Their lawyers are strangled, pleading for release for the attempted theft – “they were looking for a place to sleep” – and community service (TIG) for the violence against the gendarmes.
The two young people were sentenced to 105 hours of TIG; the forty-year-old, eight months old, is placed under an electronic bracelet. They will have to pay 800 euros to the two gendarmes, in compensation for their damage.
