This is vile, reprehensible behaviour.
It is one thing to pick a fight with someone who is as eager as you are to partake in a skirmish. It is not okay or lawful, but at least you and your foe are getting what you deserve in terms of harm or injury. It is someway towards an equal fight.
What is far beyond the pale and utterly sickening is to sucker punch at an innocent by-stander; an older man who is holding a shopping bag and pleading for calm. If you do that, you are the lowest of the low. You are not a combatant, you are a cowardly weasel.
Sadly, that is exactly what happened in France on Saturday, as a local Marseille man of senior years was filmed being knocked unconscious by a vile dickhead masquerading as a football fan.
The elderly gentleman was clearly pleading for peace, but the chickenshit who carried out the assault smashed him in the face from a running start and left him unconscious. The coward then ran away to the back of a crowd.
Such was the disgusting nature of the attack that a fellow fan tried to grab the perpetrator and admonish him, but he got away. Of all the footage we’ve seen of the violence in France since the start of the Euros, this has left us feeling completely sickened and ashamed.
Les marseillais rouent de coups un supporter anglais #ANGRUS #Marseille #Euro2016 pic.twitter.com/xdtIUlqY69
— La Provence Sports (@LaProvenceSport) June 11, 2016
The violent scenes have got so bad in Marseille that police have now turned to using water cannon, as well as tear gas.
https://twitter.com/tomwhite7/status/741674975061499906
While it’s important to point out that the vast majority of football fans in France are enjoying the tournament responsibly, it’s also important to accept that the problem of hooliganism clearly hasn’t gone away, and we need to change that.
