From Var-Matin's exhaustive coverage
If I had awoken to news that two male gendarmes had been shot dead while investigating a commonplace theft in the small Varois town of Collobrières, I would have been shocked and saddened. I probably would not have written these words.
But when such a crime occurred in these parts on Sunday night, the victims were young women, Audrey Bertaut and Alicia Champlon, and somehow it seems that much worse. The thought may betray elements of sexism as well as chivalry and sentimentality but I bet it occurred to many others in France, too.
How can anyone facing some relatively minor criminal charges bring himself or herself to grab a policewoman's gun and shoot her dead before chasing her colleague out into the street to murder her, too? I have no answer. The suspected killer is said to have been drunk. So what. Have you ever felt murderous just because you've had a few drinks?
The suspect is one Abdallah Boumezaar and before anyone leaps to the obvious conclusion, remember that word "drunk". There is not the slightest suggestion that this individual was acting in any cause. He undoubtedly has Maghrebin origins, but his alleged barbarism had nothing to do with them, though he may well be a prime target, if convicted, for Islamist indoctrination in jail.
But what a waste of lives. The life of Audrey, mother of two children; Alicia, whose happy, smiling face illuminates the photo reproduced by the media. And even Abdallah Boumezaar, for whom it is difficult to find a scrap of sympathy but who rightly, if convicted, faces all or most of the rest of his life behind bars. Plus his girfriend, charged as an accomplice. They get their day in court; if it ends with one or both spending all or most of their lives in prison, few tears will be shed on their behalf. Two more potentially wasted lives.
Abdallah's mother says he was badly affected by his father's death. But that was in April last year and he was in prison, having gone off the rails somewhat earlier, and was nearing the end of a longish sentence for drug trafficking.
Just a few days before the double killing in Collobrières, he had been up in court again, in fact one of two hearings in quick succession. For assaulting his mother, he could have been jailed again for a year under a law dealing with repeat offenders (François Hollande has said he wants to review that law). He got off with a suspended sentence. The other case, involving drink driving and related offences, was adjourned.
But Mr Hollande cannot be blamed for what happened in Collobrières. It would be unjust, without knowing the full story, to deplore judges for not carting Boumezaar straight back to jail. The ony person responsible for the deaths of Audrey Bertaut and Alicia Champlon is the one who pulled the trigger, callously ending two decent young lives.
In the old days of capital and non-capital murder in Britain, if I recall correctly, the events of Collobrières would have merited the death penalty on three separate grounds: the victims were police officers, a firearm was the murder weapon and the shootings were committed in furtherance of other crimes. Four, now I come to think about it: the second murder, of Alicia, is deemed to have been premeditated since he had to chase after her to shoot.
And this old penal liberal once again finds his complete opposition to capital punishment challenged, as it is when children are murdered or abused or terrorists set off their bombs.
But...
Even if we exclude the significant issue of irreversible miscarriages of justice, I still feel society should position itself above base feelings of revenge, above the depraved behaviour of those it seeks to punish. The abolitionist in me prevails, if only just.
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