With closed faces and roses matching white outfits, the central square of Aiguillon may have been bathed in sunshine on this Saturday afternoon, but the hour was sad. It was in this village in Lot-et-Garonne that Mélanie Lemée, a 26-year-old gendarme, who died on Saturday July 4, died of his injuries after being knocked down by a driver during a traffic stop.
"The day before at the same time, we were together, she was there, smiling," remember Justine, Manon and Claire, members of the handball team where Mélanie Lemée had been playing for three years. "Mélanie was unavailable because of an injury for a year but continued to come to encourage us, to motivate us, always full of joy," say the handball players, moved. "He was really a good person, at work and in life," said Damien, a gendarme stationed in Agen who saw the young woman several times a week "with the build of judoka but always a smile on his face".
VIDEO. "We don't want to forget Mélanie": 2000 people pay tribute to the gendarme killed
Justice laxity lawsuit
In the alleys of Aiguillon, a small village of just over 4,000 inhabitants, some 2,000 people, according to the gendarmerie, paraded behind the portrait of the gendarme. "I am there out of solidarity with a victim, but also because he is a member of the social body", underlines Alain, from Marmande. "I also went to see the gendarmes in my commune to show them my support," says the 50-year-old who knows what it is to watch his phone for fear that something might happen to his son, a soldier. “He was a few meters from the Bataclan during the attacks, I kept the text message for a long time saying that he was fine. "
In the procession Jean-Claude had put on his cap of a gendarme. Retired, after thirty-four years of service, the septuagenarian wanted to be present. “I have lost comrades in service twice and it is very hard because, in a unit, we work together and we live together in the barracks, we are very united. "For the former gendarme, seeing as many people together" is heart-warming, the gendarmes are still appreciated in the countryside ", but, for him," we may do all the white walks, it will not change anything as long as the politicians will not take action… How do you want to enforce the law with justice that is too flexible and too slow? "
The blues of the blues
For Damien, the Agenais gendarme who came to parade in civilian clothes and with his family, "what happened last Saturday is the result of forty years during which our magistrates maintained a latent laxity, so much so that the life of a human being represents only five years in prison. "
Saturday, beyond the tributes, it is fed up with a profession, which was said in a word. “We have enormous constraints, dilapidated official housing, little recognition. When we do a roadside check, we are always on our guard because it can degenerate at any time. We asked to be equipped with a control camera when we are on duty, we are still waiting. "
