A hearing marked by violence

This was evident at last Thursday’s court hearing, during which the succession of cases was matched only by the similarity of the situations – which were as absurd as they were deplorable. To begin with, there was the first brawl, which took place in a grocery shop in Grand-Case: whilst one of the two men involved allegedly attacked a customer at the shop entrance, threatening her defender with a beer bottle, the second man could think of nothing better than to fetch his jack from his car to have a go at the aggressor.

Justice and humour sometimes go hand in hand

Serving a prison sentence for other offences, one of the two men was being questioned by the judge via videoconference; when the judge asked him how he was getting on in prison, the defendant replied that he was fine and doing well. The Public Prosecutor seized the opportunity and immediately retorted that if he felt so at home in prison, he would be able to stay there longer – thus proving that beneath their stern demeanour, magistrates do have a sense of humour.
This was confirmed during another case involving three people: the wife, the husband, and one of his ex-partners, who had come to attack the wife at her workplace: insults, slaps, then a scuffle between the two women, quickly broken up by the arrival of the man, who put an end to the fight by dragging his former partner out onto the street by her hair! According to his current wife, the husband’s exes have been constantly hounding him ever since they tied the knot. The judge then pointed out to him that he was, in a way, a victim of his own success with the ladies. The man in question saw no need to deny it.

Shown the door, yes, but not over the head

Yet another domestic row involving this father visiting his children, who live with their mum. The mother, refusing to let the youngest go to the beach with his father because he has his arm in a plaster cast, tries to slam the door in her ex-husband’s face. He prevents her from doing so by slipping his foot into the gap, at which point the woman doesn’t think twice: she rips the wooden door frame off its hinges to strike her recalcitrant husband with it. Here again, the judge mischievously points out that, as the man was a joiner, it seemed only logical that he should be struck with a piece of wood.
Let us conclude this series of bare-knuckle fights with the somewhat incredible story of a man whose landlords decided to cut off his water and electricity on the pretext that he refused to maintain the garden of the property of which he is the caretaker, even though nothing of the sort was stipulated in the contract signed between the two parties. For months, tensions had been steadily rising until the day the two men came to blows, with the landlord’s wife joining in the brawl without restraint.
In short, assaults and injuries seem to be a regular feature of daily life for some residents, often arising from trivial matters and leading to reactions that are consistently disproportionate to the circumstances. The defendants are subsequently charged with these offences, yet most of them appear to downplay the consequences of their actions.