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My Delicate Neighborhood Mystery
The photo to the right is just a stock “French military guards something in Paris” photo. I didn’t take it. It’s just so you can visualize what I’m talking about.
I went out to buy some bread this morning and noticed that both the cops and the military seemed to be patrolling my neighborhood in larger numbers than usual and in an unusual way. They’re not an unfamiliar sight. Not at all. You see them all over the city. But three of the military guys were on a small street parallel to mine, where I’ve never seen them before, guarding a building I’d never seen them watching before. It’s not a place that I know to be a terrorist target of any kind. (And I still don’t; but obviously, it’s a more interesting building to someone than I’d realized.)
“Bonjour,” I said to them, “Has something abnormal happened?”
These guys look so young to my eyes. See the guy in the photo? That’s how young they all look. Like someone’s kid. The police here tend to look streetwise, cynical, and knowing. The military guys? They look too young and inexperienced. To my eyes, anyway. They nodded politely. “Not abnormal, no,” said one after reflecting for a moment. “Just sensible.”
Sensible means “sensitive.” You could also translate it as delicate.
He wasn’t at all brusque, but I didn’t feel he was encouraging me to ask more questions. Something told me it wasn’t the kind of story where you get very far just by asking. So I wished them the best of luck, walked down to the bakery, bought my bread, and came back home.
Then I thought, “Why would you put them there if you were trying to keep a secret? That’s the last thing I’d want outside that building if I were trying to be discreet, isn’t it?”
I checked the local news: no clues.
I wonder what it was?
Published in Culture, General
I don’t mean to derail the thread, but what are your thoughts about MEK?
More likely it was just a passing dignitary. “Terrorists attack a place Obama visited last year” is not that catchy.
I don’t have an expert opinion, but I’m inclined to think they’re a nutty cult with a lot less influence in Iran than they’d like people on the Hill to think. But I don’t really know.
I agree. I think they’re best viewed with suspicion, and so I am always puzzled when otherwise sensible people like Giuliani support them.
That was my first thought as well. My second was that a “person of interest” suddenly got more interesting, in which case indiscreet muscle on the street would be a good way of avoiding surprises while they pay a visit.
A curious thing was that they were slightly surprised to be asked, and didn’t have a ready answer. You’d think everyone on that street — given that they’re not usually there, and the street’s a quiet one — would be asking, “Is anything wrong?” But I guess Paris is such a mind-your-own-business kind of city that most people would just walk past, and assume, “It’s not my business.”
Claire,
…hmmmmm……fresh bread in Paris…..Yum!
Regards,
Jim
Somebody’s probably having a romp with their mistress. Needs a bit of extra security.
How eeeze you Amercains saying, “Eeeze no big deeel!”
Returned from two weeks in Paris last week. Just tourists. Wonderful time. Lots of trips on the Metro. Two relevant observations. 1) Saw almost no police or military presence. A group of three on one metro train. A couple randomly in stations. A few at major sites. 2) Saw no significant Muslim presence. Probably because we spent our limited time seeing what you must see if you only go to Paris once. An amazing city unlike any other.
Claire,
…..hmmmm……Paris……..
….huhh…what…I just dozed off there for a few seconds….
Regards,
Jim
We were recently there, too. We had our car and drove everywhere (it was August, which means free street parking in Paris!), so spent no time on the Metro. We did see what I would consider the normal amount of police/military presence for a large European city. I actually love seeing those guys — they look manly and competent, especially compared to your average willowy French male.
We saw Muslims everywhere, but then we drove all over the place, and stopped in many neighborhoods which perhaps don’t get much tourism (Parc des Buttes Chaumont in the 19th is a great place to let fidgety kids runs wild in the grass). I was impressed that they were often speaking French among themselves, and some spoke very good English as well. The Muslim mom of many who was vacating the parking space we wanted behind Sacre Coeur, spoke English fluently to my husband when he asked if she was coming or going. This is not at all common for Muslim immigrants in Italy.
One doesn’t see the military patrolling here because of the posse comitatus Act, a post-Reconstruction act of Congress that severely limits the ability of the President to employ the military for the purpose of enforcing the civil law. The willful use of the army as a posse comitatus or otherwise to execute the laws is a felony, unless the use is expressly authorized by the Constitution or an act of Congress.