ouch !!!!!!

[the 12 th man]

www.wimp.com/riotfight/

[lopez]

www.wimp.com/riotfight/

He's from the French CRS who are renouned for giving it out so it's not easy feeling sorry for the bloke.

[dcfcsteve]

He's from the French CRS who are renouned for giving it out so it's not easy feeling sorry for the bloke.

C'mon Lopez - it's not nice seeing anyone getting kicked senseless by a crowd when they're on the ground. He looked a bit under-dressed for the CRS (aren't they usually dolled-up like Darth Vader ?), but will take your word for it (or your knowledge of German, if it was mentioned in the commentary )

Wouldn't be surprised if the guy was either dead or in the proverbial 'vegetative state' now, as the guys at the front of the crowd made a bee-line for his head when he went down. Really not nice.....

Shockingly bad policing though - they didn't even have helmets. Where was the back-up ? Looked like it might have been at a sports event as well.

[lopez]

C'mon Lopez - it's not nice seeing anyone getting kicked senseless by a crowd when they're on the ground.

Point taken. I'm not really one of your 'I 'ate all filff' types, but the CRS have more than a poor reputation. Founded in 1945 (presumably not to disrupt society too much with the sudden departure of the Nazis), their finest hour came in the murder of upto a 100 unarmed Algerians in Paris in 1961, while led by the colaborator and war criminal, Maurice Papon. They make the B Specials look like Lenny Henry's PC Ganja.

I recognised him as CRS because a. the commentary mentioned 'Frankriech' and b. there's the big triangle on his uniform. However, the policing wasn't up to CRS standards. Perhaps their reputation is normally enough?

In Troyes for the u21 game they were there without too much of the gear but lots of their normal surliness. I didn't notice too many at the Stade. Think security seemed to be mostly in the hands of a private firm who appeared to be far more 'customer orientated' even though they are probably from the same stable as nightclub bouncers.

[Closed Account 2]

Hard to believe they got themselves into a situation of such exposure, any serious policeforce wouldnt leave 2 rookies to control an area which must have contained 50-100 hostile fans. Any decent police force would always have teams of plain-clothes officers in and amongst the crowd (normally there to identify troublemakers for prosecution later), who would have gone to his aid once he was on the ground. Also cant believe the other policeman just left, behind those white doors, while his co-worker was getting a kicking on the ground.

[lopez]

... Also cant believe the other policeman just left, behind those white doors, while his co-worker was getting a kicking on the ground.

Unbelievable. Least they could have done is start shooting, like the Gard that was cornered by the Rangers fans at Dalymount Park. Normally does the trick.