Pension reform: in Lyon, the murky profile of thugs

Who are the thugs? During the protests against the pension reform? The answer comes in halftone on Wednesday, March 22, in Lyon’s direct appearance courtroom. Matt, 21, is suspected of being part of the radical Black Bloc movement, dressed in black and involved in a series of abuses over eight days. “He had all the accoutrements of disorder on top of him”notes Laurent Bohe, a lawyer who is a civil party to an injured police officer who received a 33-centiliter glass bottle in the face. According to a police report, a group of about fifty people violently charged the police during an impromptu parade on Monday, March 20. At the time Gambetta was arrested, the Beaux-Arts student carried diving goggles, masks and spray paint in a bag without a cap. black block?

With medium-length brown hair pulled back and a slight goatee, the young defendant denies any political radicalism. Confronted by a police officer, he broke down in police custody and admitted to throwing the bottle at him. “I wanted a federation, nothing justifies this gesture. It was stress, pressure and fear that I was experiencing at that time. It is a disproportionate gesture that I regret. I never imagined that this would happen, or even that one day in my life I would be in this room.”– said the student shyly and choked back tears. “There are far better trained thugs who don’t get caught, he panics and stumbles.”asks his lawyer Maxens Gent.

He explains that the young man wanted to demonstrate in the assembly on the day of the censure motion because of his father’s condition, who hides his Parkinson’s disease from his employer and his mother at home. “Who will have to work until the age of 67 to finance the pension”. “I fell into an atmosphere of violence”– confesses the young accused, before the prosecutor Dominique Soves demands a ten-month prison sentence and a ban on actions. The court imposed a sentence of seventy hours of community service and ordered the injured policeman to pay damages in the amount of 1000 euros.

“I was angry”

Between disoriented immaturity and planned violence, judicial and police authorities are struggling to identify the profile of suspects arrested during violent episodes in Lyon, as revealed in recent arrest reports that the world was able to consult. After the raid of City Hall 4^e Half of the 37 people arrested on the evening of Friday, March 17, were between the ages of 16 and 23. None are directly involved in damaging municipal buildings. Only thirteen are subject to trial, with convocation dates set for the summer.