Joe.My.God. LGBT News
The Associated Press reports:
The two candidates in France’s hotly contested presidential election called a brief truce Tuesday to honor a police officer gunned down last week on the Champs-Elysees. Centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron and the far-right’s Marine Le Pen attended an emotional memorial ceremony for Xavier Jugele, a 37-year-old officer who was gunned down Thursday while sitting in a police vehicle on the famous Paris avenue.
In a commemoration service at Paris’s police headquarters, outgoing French President Francois Hollande described Jugele as an “everyday hero.” “France has lost one of its bravest sons,” Hollande added. He awarded Jugele the Chevalier rank of the Legion of Honor, one of France’s highest honors, and promoted him posthumously to captain.
Agence France-Presse reports:
The gay partner of the French policeman killed by a jihadist in Paris says he feels “no hatred”, in a moving eulogy at a remembrance ceremony led by President Francois Hollande. Addressing hundreds of mourners at a ceremony at Paris police headquarters, Jugele’s partner Etienne Cardiles spoke of his “extreme pain” at the death of the officer, who had campaigned for gay rights within the police force.
“This pain makes me feel closer to your comrades who suffer in silence like you and me,” he said in a trembling voice, describing Jugele as a cinema and theatre buff who lived “a life of joy and huge smiles”. Echoing the words of the husband of one of the victims of the November 2015 Paris attacks, Cardiles said the killer would “not have my hatred”. “I have no hatred, Xavier, because it is not like you and does not fit with what made your heart beat nor what made you a guardian of the peace,” he said.
The clip below has been subtitled in English.
The husband of the policeman who was murdered last week in Paris delivers an emotional eulogy at his memorial service pic.twitter.com/yGfVNQ1IXZ
— Channel 4 News (@Channel4News) April 25, 2017