By: V4 Agency
With crime on the rise, France saw yet another turbulent weekend of multiple atrocities across the country. A teenage boy was shot dead, a photojournalist was beaten half to death and a police car parked in a street was set ablaze.
Crime in France appears to be taking on enormous proportions, with victims of intensifying gang wars being adolescents all the more frequently. Just in the past couple of days, three minors have been killed: two teenagers were stabbed to death last week, while a 15-year-old boy was shot dead over the weekend at a leisure centre in the town of Bondy in Seine-Saint-Denis departement. The perpetrators arrived on a scooter, entered the building, and then took aim and fired. Witnesses said the attackers did not fire shots at random, but deliberately aimed at the young man, injuring his chest so severely that doctors were unable to save his life.
Press reports say that the teenage boy was not unknown to the authorities. The two perpetrators who fled the scene turned themselves in later. According to information obtained by the French weekly Le Point, the assailants were brothers, aged 17 and 27, who had a dispute with the victim. The prosecution is currently investigating the exact motive of the showdown.
Another violent incident which took place in the city of Reims was also committed by young people. A gang armed with iron bars, golf clubs and cobble stones attacked a photojournalist, who was taken to hospital in a critical condition. The reason for the attack is not yet known but, according to prosecutor Matthieu Bourette, the journalist probably tried to report on the youngsters’ illegal gathering in the town’s Croix Rouge district, who took offence. 65-year-old Christian Lantenois has worked for l’Union since the ’80s. Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin expressed his sympathy to the seriously injured journalist, and tweeted that local authorities were fully mobilised to apprehend the perpetrators.
However, it’s was not just the photojournalist who became the target of aggression this weekend. In Bouvais, the centre of Oise departement, thugs hurled stones and fired pyrotechnic devices at police officers.
Deputy Mayor Frack Pia called the incident unacceptable, and expressed his gratitude to firefighters who put out the flames engulfing the vehicles previously set on fire.
It was not the only attack on police this weekend. On Friday afternoon, two people dressed in black hoodies set a police car ablaze on a street in Mulhouse, east of France, near the Swiss and German border.
With regards to the incident Michel Corriaux, the regional secretary of the Alliance Police Union, stressed that law enforcement needs more officers and sufficient financial resources to curb the growing violence. The expert went so far as to say that a new Marshall Plan was necessary.