Holidays notwithstanding, things are not all that gay in Paree this time. Here are some of the indications:
- When Sandra and I went to the Christmas Market on the lower half of the Champs-Elysees last (Friday) night, we saw something that we definitely didn’t see a year ago: Army patrols, in groups of three, carrying automatic weapons. And that in addition to police patrols.
- We also saw and heard from our hotel room — both yesterday and today — a lot of police vehicles (motorcycles, cars, vans) going up and down the C-E. One went by, siren cycling, as I typed this.
- This afternoon, when I went out to start my interviews, the location I had picked out earlier in the day was now crowded, with bystanders watching a large contingent of police — both uniformed (in light riot gear) and plainclothed — questioning a succession of people — all black males — and detaining a number of them, making them empty their pockets and get into one of several parked police vans.
- Later that afternoon, while I was still out soliciting interviews, I was approached by an American couple looking for their hotel (which happened to be the same as ours). They said that they had walked down from the Arc de Triomphe, where there appeared to be two different protests going on: one that he said looked like the ‘Occupy’ protests in the US, and the other comprising what appeared to be all blacks.
Sandra and I were actually up by the Arc de Triomphe this morning — largely to go to the Metro station there — and while the area was crowded, we didn’t see any protests. (We did see, however, quite a few young people blantatly jumping the turnstiles in the Metro.) I can’t find anything on the newswires, either about the protests or about why security would be ramnped up right now, but there you have it. ..bruce w..