Three days after the very violent assault of a bus driver in Bayonne, Sunday evening, the four suspects were charged. All were placed in pre-trial detention, two of them, aged 22 and 23, are being tried for attempted murder. On Wednesday evening, relatives of the victim, between life and death, called for a white march.
Colleagues of the driver, residents of the Bayonne conurbation … Dressed in white, a flower in their hands, many people gathered at the Balichon stop, a stop where the bus driver was severely beaten on Sunday.
A few hours before the tragedy, Jean-Pierre had boarded the tram’bus which Philippe Monguillot was driving. “He was a friend of mine,” he says. “I have been taking the bus for 30 years in Bayonne, I saw him on Sunday afternoon, he took me to Biarritz, I met him again, and since then I have never seen him again”.
“He was respected in his work, which is normal,” he continues, “It’s lamentable, it’s criminal, he will be missed by his wife, his three daughters … In Bayonne, it becomes serious, all the days I see incivilities! “
Eyes full of tears, revolted by this aggression, the Bayonnais present at the white march insisted on demonstrating “in solidarity”, explains one of the participants. “These are things that are unacceptable,” he said. “We are in a society where as soon as you refuse to give up a cigarette, you are beaten up!”
Around the victim’s relatives, the white march then took the direction of the hospital where the attacked bus driver was taken care of. The fifties is in a state of brain death.
Meanwhile, the evidence is increasing that the majority of the attackers are likely to be people with a migration background. According to the newspaper LeParisien, at least three of the suspects are said to have lived with a Mohamed A. in his apartment. The newspaper speaks of a “deadly cocktail of alcohol and drugs” from which the suspects may have drawn their aggression. Four suspects are in custody.
Although the mainstream media, both in France and abroad, are silent about any group from the immigrant milieu, a number of voices are becoming ever louder in favour of this. The founder of the patriotic channel “TV Liberté”, Martial Bild, for example, speaks of a racist attack – this interpretation at least suggests that the perpetrators were probably not French Caucasians.
Source: europe1 – tellerreport.com/tech/2020-07-08-emotion-and-anger-during-the-white-march-for-the-driver-of-bayonne.SkecSocmkw.html – wochenblick.at/frankreich-trauermarsch-nach-brutaler-attacke-auf-busfahrer/