Crépol’s Tragedy: Village Brawl or Ethnic War?

A tragedy occurred a few days ago in the small town of Crépol, in the Drôme region of southern France. During a village ball, some individuals appeared, spreading panic and terror and causing the death of Thomas, a boy of 16. Today, journalists and politicians are engaged in a veritable battle of semantics. A mere news item or a major event? Ordinary violence or savagery? A brawl or an assault? Every word used to describe this episode has far-reaching consequences. Once again, the Left shines in its denial of reality concerning both the origin of the attackers and the nature of the victims. 

After a few days of uncertainty about the exact sequence of events, the facts are gradually beginning to be reconstructed with precision. On the night of November 18, 300 to 400 young people gathered in the village hall of the small village of Crépol in the department of Drôme for “a simple dance party with a sound system, organised by the village’s festivities committee,” according to Martine Lagut, the mayor of the village. 

A gang of individuals broke into the party and spread terror by attacking the participants with knives. A youngster of 16, Thomas, a member of the local rugby club, was killed. He died of a stab wound during his transfer to a hospital in Lyon. Two others are still in critical condition. In all, there were 17 victims. 

Initially, the local and then the national press reported a “brawl.” But the participants in the Crépol winter dance made their strong disapproval known. For there to be a brawl, there has to be shared responsibility. But that’s not how it happened. “On the internet, it says a brawl! But it wasn’t a brawl, we didn’t want to fight at the ball,” read statements in the article in Le Dauphiné Libéré, a local newspaper. 

Screenshot X

On X, the contextualisation service now offered by the platform worked hard to correct the terms used. Hugo, 18, who was at the dance party, re-characterised the incident:

I was near the entrance, and I saw Thomas being stabbed in the heart and throat. There was a battle between the attackers and those who had the courage to stand up to them. 

Maxence, also aged 18, echoed this:

It was a bloodbath. Some youths surrounded the village hall and were stabbing people blind. The bouncer had his fingers cut off. It was chaos.

The profile of the attackers then became clearer: “guys from La Monnaie,” i.e., young people from a so-called sensitive area of the neighbouring town of Romans-sur-Isère. As elsewhere in France, this neighbourhood was in flames a few months ago during the riots that followed Nahel Merzouk’s death.

The accumulation of evidence against the killers—young people from North African immigrant families—has not prevented a number of left-wing columnists from persisting in their denial. One of them, on the set of BFM TV, refused to dramatise the situation and drew a parallel between the Crépol tragedy and the children’s novel La guerre des boutons (The War of the Buttons), recounting children’s fights in the countryside in days gone by—a terrifying blindness given the seriousness of the events. Others have tried to shift the blame by accusing the bouncer in charge of security at the entrance of the ball of possible “racial profiling.” In brief, the victims “had it coming.” The accusation of “recuperation,” as in the atrocious case of the murder of little Lola, was also repeated by journalists. Again on BFM TV, they condemned the allegedly far-right scenario of “these people from the suburbs that would go all the way to the countryside to attack these peaceful French people.” “It’s a gross exaggeration,” concluded the presenter on the set.  

On the spot, the gendarmes in charge of the investigation who described the incident as “homicide and attempts by an organised gang,” see things very differently. Since then, nine individuals have already been arrested. Among them is the killer of young Thomas. Some of them are well known to the law, notably for theft, drug-related break-ins, and resisting arrest. Two are minors. Some of the men, who were caught fleeing Toulouse, were planning to flee to Spain and North Africa.

However, the racist dimension of the crime is becoming more and more apparent as the testimonies of those who took part in the ball multiply. Some of them are quite explicit. In Le Dauphiné, one of them said: “For me, it was clearly an attack. The assailants said: ‘We’re here to stab white people.’” This can also be heard in a video that went viral on social media. 

The press review site Fdesouche investigated the suspects’ social networks. The results are indisputable. For these young criminals, anti-French hatred and calls for violence are commonplace in the content posted on TikTok or X: “I like my country, long live the CMU [French social aid], the carte vitale [French social security], the free dentist, but I don’t like the French,” explains a certain KarimAnother adds, “I’ll tell you the truth, I don’t give a *** and it doesn’t make me sad. … You think I’m going to cry over one death? Bunch of ***.”

In view of the large number of corroborating testimonies, the AGRIF (Alliance générale contre le racisme et pour le respect de l’identité française et chrétienne, General Alliance against Racism and for the Respect of French and Christian Identity) decided to file a civil suit to bring justice to the victims of anti-white racism.

In response to the shockwaves, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin declared: “This is a general failure of our society. It’s called savagery,” before concluding that we needed to “rethink the framework of authority.” Unfortunately, this affair has a terrible air of déjà vu.

https://europeanconservative.com/articles/analysis/crepols-tragedy-village-brawl-or-ethnic-war/