This is how a death after a dance in France divided a city

ROMANS-SUR-ISÈRE, France — The traditional village dance held 18 minutes from the city ended in the traditional way: young people fighting.

What made it different were the knives.

Three young people were rushed to hospital on November 19. One, the 16-year-old captain of a local rugby team, died en route from a stab wound to the heart.

What might have been considered a local tragedy for the residents of Romans-sur-Isère, a working-class town 100 kilometers south of Lyon, quickly became a national note for one reason: race. The victim was a white teenager from the countryside, while many of the suspects were of North African descent and from La Monnaie, an urban neighborhood famous for drug trafficking.

Far-right supporters, politicians and right-wing media outlets pounced on the case as proof that France's traditional values ​​were threatened by immigrants and their descendants, who, they say, have refused to assimilate.

Fueled by this interpretation, between 50 and 100 far-right nationalists later descended on the city to avenge what they characterized as an anti-white murder. Armed with iron bars and baseball bats, they chanted: “Let Islam leave Europe.”

For others, it was the growing boldness of the far right that posed the greatest threat to the country and their own security. Many residents of La Monnaie said they were now staying home for fear of being targeted for their North African roots.

“Today the extreme right wants to push us into a civil war,” declared Gérald Darmanin, the Minister of the Interior, on national radio.

The events have left many residents of Romans-sur-Isère, a city clinging to its former glory as France's luxury shoe-making capital, in a state of stunned bewilderment.

“The horrible thing is that you send your son to a party and he comes back dead or a murderer,” said City Councilman Thomas Huriez. “We are all restless. “We are all a little lost in this, but most of us want things to calm down and the truth to be known.”

The truth will have to wait until the vast criminal investigation is completed. More than 100 police officers are working on the case. Two days after the bloody scene, they raided and arrested nine young men and teenagers, seven of whom had fled 300 miles west to Toulouse. They face charges of murder and attempted murder in an organized gang.

The dance was held in the town of Crépol, with 530 inhabitants. Weekend dances are a tradition in villages across France, and some 400 people crowded into a community centre.

A minor insult about a hairstyle sparked a fight that was taken outside. Fights at the end of town dances are so common that people recount them almost wistfully — but this one quickly escalated the violence to a shocking level.

A knife wound killed Thomas Perotto, the youngest son of a restaurant owner. The details and motives remain unclear. The first 100 witnesses interviewed told investigators that members of La Monnaie's small group threw rocks and metal fences and pulled out knives.

Nine of the scores of witnesses said they heard hostile comments toward the “whites” during the fight. “We only have one version of the story,” said Thierry Devimeux, the local prefect. “I'm not sure there weren't equally ugly words in the other direction.”

A week after the ball, Marie-Hélène Thoraval, right-wing Mayor of Romans-sur-Isère, declared that in La Monnaie there were about 50 irredeemable “savages” who, fueled by drugs and radicalization, represented a worrying trend throughout the Country .

Many La Monnaie residents said they felt stigmatized by the Mayor's comments.

“These kids were five or ten years old when the mayor was elected,” said Salim Dlih, 42, who grew up in La Monnaie. “If she had kept the same programs that I had when she was young, if they had had the same opportunity as me, maybe they would be working as engineers in companies like me.”

City Councilman Joseph Guinard said poverty did not explain taking a knife to a dance and stabbing someone.

“I used to think everyone was good,” he said. “I found excuses easily. It's harder now. It is not a question of investments or money. It is a question of humanity”.

By: CATHERINE PORTER