--------------------------------------------------------------- CONTRE INFOS EUROPEAN COUNTER NETWORK PARIS / FRANCE --------------------------------------------------------------- 24 December 1995 / N- 04 -------------------------------------------------------------- Ecn c/o Reflex - 21 ter, rue Voltaire, 75011 Paris (France) --------------------------------------------------------------- Counter@dialup.francenet.fr http://www.anet.fr/~aris/ --------------------------------------------------------------- 1) STATE OF EMMERGENCY IN FIGURES 2) VIGIPIRATE, ENOUGH ! _______________________________________________________ THE STATE OF EMMERGENCY IN FIGURES ------------------------------------------------------- The 'Vigipirate' Plan - we are talking 42,000 police officers and mobile military personnel >> IN FRANCE Vigipirate mobilises, over the whole of the territory: 12,059 police officers, 15,085 armed police and 15,000 other military personnel. That's a total of 42,000. Taking into account non-working days and holiays that gives us a figure of 32,000 on the ground. >> ON THE PARIS UNDERGROUND The Metro Protection and Security Servvice (SPSM) includes about 500 police officers, of which about 100 are plain clothes attatched to the Parisian police force. In addition the SPSM also currently manages two squadrons of armed police, one squadron from the Republican Guard, a company of riot police and 600 soldiers - some 1,400 men in all. >> COST 214 millions francs will be taken out of the national budget in 1996 simply to pay for the excess demanded by the CRS (TN riot police) >> AIMS Paris, 29th October. The Home Secretary states publicly his wish to give more financial resources to the police in the suburbs. The police will have faster cars, will be protecte by bullet-proof vests and armed with 'flash-ball' guns which fire rubber bullets (source, Le Monde 31st October 1995) ---------------------------------------------- VIGIPIRATE, ENOUGH! --------------------------------------------- So, you take the metro. Cops everywhere. You take the train. Cops everywhere. You get around by car or moped. Again cops everywhere. You take to walking. Cops, cops, cops! With soldiers armed with machine guns following on behind. That is what they call 'vigipirate'. You have been told on TV that it's to stop terrorism.. to reassure you. Reassure? It makes you think of Coluche (TN French 'comedian') who used to say: 'When you see a cop on the street it means all is safe. If there was any danger the cop wouldn't be there'. Who are they controlling these cops? As always the young, the poor, the suburbanites and anyone else who can't afford the aspirins (...) Stopping terrorists? How many have these patrols stopped since July? None. But not coz the cops are stupid - throughout France they have stopped millions and tens of thousands of car drivers. Official statements claim that petty crime has gone down as has tarif avoidance on the underground and, thanks to all that, several hundred foreigners 'in irregular situations' have been expelled. And of course you know that 'irregular situations' isn't referring to those cretins who put bombs on the underground rather it's the guys who sell peanuts or roses in the cafes or perhaps a student who has missed his UV or someone or other who is 24 hours late with the paperwork. So what is the point of Vigipirate? Of course they let the cat out of the bag when they tried to implement it openly on the tramlines against young people in Stasbourg, when they used it against demonstrators in Tahiti, when they use it to stop people handing out leaflets or when they talk of creating a 'vigibanlieue' (TN Vigisuburbs). Vigipirate aims to frighten people - you, me, everyone. It makes us look at each other especially the other like watch dogs. It serves permanent control - it is the corollary of videosurveillance and Pasqua's laws. It sows the seeds of ethnic hatred. We've had enough of it! - November 95 Un Refractaires Sans Frontieres parmis d'autres...