These CCTV images shocked public opinion in France last week. A seven minute video of four youths, smoking and acting aggressive, shows them robbing and badly beating up a 19 year old student in the north of central Paris. The victim can easily be identified as the young, blond man with the Burberry scarf. Passengers who tried to intervene were also punched and beaten. The CCTV images, shot last December, were put online by an unnamed police officer, and – of course – circulated in no time within the French press. It was announced the police officer who put the images online will be charged for releasing the video, which is a hit among far-right French voters. They see it as proof of how violent and aggressive the kids from the suburbs are, the so-called ‘Banlieus’. At some point you can hear the non-white attackers scream at their Victim ‘Sale francais’, which means ‘dirty Frenchman’.
Although the police said two of the youths were arrested on the spot after the bus driver alerted the police, the RATP Transport Authority said in a statement that ‘its bus drivers have strict orders not to intervene in defence of passengers but to stay at the wheel and press a silent alarm button.’ Many RATP drivers are scared and one was quoted as saying in the French newspaper Le Parisien: "If you do not have money for a taxi on a Saturday night, it's better to stay in the disco and wait for the morning."
If you want to see the video, please click here (warning: it contains violence and might be disturbing to some)
If you want to see the video, please click here (warning: it contains violence and might be disturbing to some)
If you are interested in an interview with the victim, the 19-year old student who does not want to be named, please click here: http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/3875
(http://www.lefigaro.fr, http://www.eurosoc.com, http://www.timesonline.com, www.detijd.be, www.telegraaf.nl)
