Nîmes supporters denounce police violence, some even plan to file a complaint. Saturday evening, 450 Crocos supporters in eight buses took the road to the Vélodrome to attend the Marseille-Nîmes football match. But a prefectural decree for Bouches-du-Rhône authorized the displacement of only 200 supporters. Police therefore intercepted them on the highway near Lançon-Provence and the situation has degenerated.
Support for residents of Nimois for the attacks they suffered by the police and the crs yesterday. We do not support the same team but precisely, we wanted opposing supporters in numbers at the vel yesterday because that’s what popular football we love #OMNO#TeamOMhttps://t.co/YFicaJH60L
– Alex Carter / David (@AlexCarterDavid) December 22, 2019
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A return to Nîmes full of incidents
Intercepted on the highway, supporters, also made up of elderly people, women and children, were stranded in the Lançon-Provence area for about two hours. Two hours of talks with the prefect to allow the Nimes to see the match, without success. The Bouches-du-Rhône police then escorted them to Nîmes .
A journey marked by a sudden stop “right in the middle of the highway“Embarek, 19, tells us. The young man filmed the police intervention on the bus.”The Gladiators bus driver [NDLR : groupe de supporters nîmois] made headlight calls to the police asking them to drive faster because it was dangerous“says the young man. The president of the other group of supporters Nemausus 2013 confirms,”we drove maximum at 45 km / h“.”The CRS stopped, boarded the bus, gassed the driver and threw a disarming grenade inside“adds Cyril Roure.
Once at Costières de Nîmes, “everyone is depressed, everyone just wants to go home and forget this day“says Embarek, the supporter of the Crocos. But the situation has completely degenerated. Why? “Without reason” explains the young man. “We see a row of CRS in front of a bus, the crowd in front, no virulent signs of supporters. And there, the CRS advance, launch gas“says the young man still in shock.
“It is terrifying to see this today in France, on the eve of 2020. I received a grenade on my foot while a few seconds before I was next to a little girl.” – Bilal, supporter of the Nîmes Olympique.
As we can see on several videos posted widely on Twitter, children were among this crowd of supporters. A girl and a boy very shocked by the sounds of an explosion and by the tear gas in the middle of the night are in tears and howl, terrified. It’s Bilal, 22, who films, he explains “when i see that i’m shocked. She was crying, just before I filmed she asked: where is my daddy?“.
“When I tell myself that at the start, we were just going to see a football match.” – Embarek, 19 years old.
“I saw a friend’s father being clubbed“Embarek explains. The friend in question is willing to testify, but anonymously.”I saw my father before my eyes, on his birthday, being pushed against a car and thrown to the ground by four CRS and beat him up. I tried my best to pull it but I slipped. They also beat me. We managed to run away and heard the CRS say: damn guys I screwed up my stock of grenades, laughing “.
You are really ashamed of nothing ….. a beautiful band of dogs the crs who gassed us tonight children of the elderly women of the families ….. we did nothing wrong in addition to that nothing justify what happened it’s a shame
– Germinho???? (@ germain__23) December 22, 2019
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“For five minutes it’s total blur, the gases that bite us, we almost can’t breathe, really it’s a shame. When I tell myself that at the start we were just going to see a football match“laments the young man. Some supporters plan to file a complaint, such as Cyril Roure, the president of the Nemausus 2013 supporter group.
“I assure you it won’t stop there!” – Cyril Roure, president of the Nemausus 2013 supporters group.
“I plan to make an appointment with the prefect of Gard to have a discussion, write to the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Sports. Nothing justified this violence. Nothing ! We got off the bus and got disassembled. It won’t stop there“assures Cyril Roure. At the end of this evening, only one person was arrested by the police according to the supporters.
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