Dès sa création en 2021, le cabinet s'est plongé dans les dossiers de la vallée de la chimie, vaste territoire industriel au sud de Lyon. « On a commencé par analyser les installations classées pour la protection de l'environnement (ICPE), les rapports administratifs de la Dreal [la Direction régionale de l'environnement, de l'aménagement et du logement], les mises en demeure, les arrêtés préfectoraux, raconte l'avocate de 39 ans. Ce qu'on a découvert est sidérant : des dizaines de non-conformités, mais pratiquement aucune sanction. »
La plateforme chimique d'Arkema et Daikin Chemical à Oullins-Pierre-Bénite. Le stade du Brotillon fait partie des premiers lieux où la contamination a été documentée, quelques coureurs s'y aventurent encore. © Bastien Doudaine / Reporterre
Lorsque les révélations d'« Envoyé spécial » et « Vert de rage » en 2022 ont mis en lumière la contamination massive aux PFAS, Kaizen était déjà sur le terrain. Louise Tschanz a alors tenté une stratégie audacieuse : le référé pénal environnemental, un mécanisme d'urgence encore très peu utilisé par la justice, qui vise à mettre très rapidement un terme à une pollution constatée ou à en limiter l'ampleur. L'objectif : contraindre les industriels à financer des mesures immédiates — études sanitaires, analyses environnementales — au nom du principe pollueur-payeur.

A Colorado man has been sentenced to 20 years in prison after admitting he wanted to kill two lesbians that he saw kissing on the street.

Vitalie Oprea, 47, pleaded guilty to a charge of attempted first-degree murder after deliberation, along with a violent crime sentence enhancer.

Related

Florida man terrifies LGBTQ+ running club in nighttime SUV attack

In 2023, Oprea took his parents’ vehicle without permission from their home in Aurora, Colorado, and was idling near an intersection when he observed two women standing on a street corner whom he believed were lesbians, according to the local district attorney’s office.

Witnesses said Oprea began yelling at and making obscene gestures toward the women before making a U-turn and driving westbound in the eastbound lanes of the road he was on, in an apparent attempt to get closer to them.

Never Miss a Beat

Subscribe to our newsletter to stay ahead of the latest LGBTQ+ political news and insights.
Subscribe to our Newsletter today

Fearing for their safety, the women ran onto a grassy area at a nearby high school to escape.

Oprea then drove over a curb, onto a sidewalk, and across the lawn in pursuit of the women. They fled into a Ram pickup truck, which Oprea then rammed with his vehicle.

Oprea exited his own vehicle and approached the passenger side of the truck, kicked the vehicle, opened the door, and attempted to pull one of the women out. He fled the scene and was arrested later that day, about 20 miles west of the site of the attempted murder.

Both victims told investigators they feared for their lives and believed Oprea, whom they didn’t know, was attempting to run them over and kill them.

Witnesses also stated they believed Oprea was trying to strike the women with his vehicle.

While in custody, Oprea made a spontaneous statement to the arresting officer, saying, “I drove at the women because I saw them kissing and they were lesbians and I wanted to kill them.”

“These women did nothing to provoke this violence,” said Deputy District Attorney Lauren Agee. “They were targeted, chased, and left fearing for their lives. Our office takes hate-motivated violence extremely seriously, and attacks rooted in hate will be met with accountability and significant consequences.”

A Hate Crimes Team was formed by the Aurora-area DA’s office in 2020 to investigate and prosecute bias-motivated crimes.  

“This case highlights why we established our specialized Hate Crimes Team,” said Chief Deputy District Attorney Joel Zink.

“By dedicating specific resources and expertise to cases where individuals are targeted because of who they are, we ensure these crimes are met with the full force of the law. This 20-year sentence reflects our unwavering commitment to a coordinated, aggressive response to hate-motivated violence in the 18th Judicial District.”

A similar incident occurred in November when a Florida man attempted to run down members of an LGBTQ+ running group gathered at a park in West Palm Beach.

“This car is flying at you. I have never seen a car fly that fast right towards me in my entire life,” said Rudolph Galindo, treasurer for the Night Runners club.

Subscribe to the LGBTQ Nation newsletter and be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.

Over the past few months, a large-scale cloud storage subscription scam campaign has been targeting users worldwide with repeated emails falsely warning recipients that their photos, files, and accounts are about to be blocked or deleted due to an alleged payment failure. [...]