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13 novembre 2015 - Attaques Paris [Part 2]

The attacks started at 9:20pm at the Stade de France (stadium), which is in the suburb of Saint-Denis north of Paris proper. Three terrorists attempted to get into the stadium where a football (soccer) match was playing between Germany and France. They were unsuccessful and two blew themselves up at the entrance gates while the third blew himself up in front of a nearby café, killing an innocent bystander.

Almost simultaneously a second team of terrorists began their rampage in the streets of the 10^th and 11^th arrondissements, literally spraying gunfire at packed cafés and bars – those places where many innocents were killed are: Le Carillon, Le Petit Cambodge, Le Bonne Biere, Le Casa Nostra, and Le Belle Equipe. All of those places, as well as the areas in general, have a thriving evening business sustained by young adults just living life as young adult do. From there, one of the terrorists walked down Boulevard Voltaire and entered the Le Comptoir Voltaire and blew himself up (I’m not clear if he entered the café or blew himself up just outside it – his actions claimed one more innocents life).

And a third team of terrorists entered the Bataclan music venue where they immediately began killing people, then took hundreds hostage and continued their killing until the French version of SWAT got control of the building. Unfortunately, this wasn’t a quick operation and watching it unfold was very painful to me. The police had an almost unbelievable situation to confront against terrorists who willingly used massive gun power against them.

Below I’ve marked a map (yellow stars) showing the various locations where the attacks occurred within the city of Paris. I’ve also included a marker for the Châtelet metro station showing where my houseguest and I were earlier that evening. The distance between the Le Carillon Restaurant and the Le Comptoir Voltaire Café is 1.8 miles. The distance between the Châtelet metro station and the Bataclan music venue is 1.1 miles. Everything is within easy walking distance.

In the end, the three terrorists were dead at the music venue, as well as many concertgoers. The number I keep reading is 89 dead at the Bataclan, but that number hasn’t changed since it occurred and I have to believe (I hope I’m wrong) that some of the wounded didn’t make it. A couple of days after the attack I saw a photograph taken inside the Bataclan once the terrorists had been killed and the hostages freed. The picture was of the mosh pit in front of the stage – there were at least 20 (maybe even 40) bodies lying there. It was a very difficult picture to look at (which is the reason I can’t say how many bodies, as it was very disturbing to look at) knowing that not only are the families traumatized by their loved ones being killed (and I pray to God they never see that picture) but all of the first responders and law enforcement personnel have got to be affected by what they witnessed that night.

For me, slipping back into my ‘cop mode,’ the difficult part of this entire attack on Paris is thinking about the police officers. I know what I saw throughout my career and would not wish it on anyone – there are just some things that an officer will never forget seeing. And with this attack – thinking about the minimum of eight separate crime scenes, the personnel needed to process each crime scene, the multiple deaths at each crime scene (the café Le Belle Equipe alone had 19 people killed) as well as the numerous injured at each crime scene, taking witness statements … and it goes on and on.

I imagine that all law enforcement that night was pulled to those areas to assist – that would be like having NCPD, LMPD, Coronado PD, etc. coming to assist CVPD with crime scenes (because the law enforcement in each arrondissement, even though they are all the same type of law enforcement, works for that arrondissement only).

The next day, on Saturday, it was reported that all law enforcement personnel had all time off cancelled. I still can’t get my head around how the cops processed everything as well as trying to deal with the utter destruction of people they saw. The last count I’m aware of is 130 dead, 350 injured with 99 of those in critical condition.

Then taking a step back from the actually murders and attempt murders by the terrorists, the President of France, that Friday night, declared a State of Emergency. That allowed him to bring 1,500 soldiers into the streets of Paris (in addition to the hundreds already here stationed at the various tourist sites, monuments, Jewish schools, etc).  He also advised the residents of Paris to stay indoors with their doors locked as they were not sure if all the terrorists were accounted for (and in the end, they were not).

A State of Emergency is automatically for 12 days and among other things allows law enforcement broader powers to conduct interviews, searches, and arrests/holding of persons of interest. By the time the first weekend was over there had been 414 searches conducted in France with numerous persons detained and/or arrested and weapons seized – including a ROCKET LAUNCHER found in southern France. I believe the number of raids is now in the 800+ range and that’s just here in France … currently Belgium is conducting numerous raids in their country related to the Paris attack.

The President of France has since gone to the house/senate (I’m not sure what they are called here) to ask for the State of Emergency to be extended for 3 months, which received overwhelming support. I, too, support the extension as well as do everyone I’ve spoken to about it. With the raids done to date and the intelligence, weapons, etc. that they’ve gotten so far it just shows how integrated the terrorists have made themselves in France and I am all for any enforcement measures that will help root them out and stop further attacks in Paris or elsewhere. [I imagine that statement maybe unpopular with some of my blog readers – I will not apologize for my opinion. Please know that this blog is not a forum for argument on difference of opinions].

The raids lead into the incident in Saint-Denis – again, it is a suburb located north of Paris proper. It was a good lesson in things that can go wrong when, as law enforcement, you’re expecting one thing and something very different happens. As I understand it, a team of police went to conduct a raid on an apartment they had information occupants were associated with the mastermind of the Paris attacks. From that contact they went to a different apartment down the street. At that second apartment, they were originally not successful with breaking down the door as it had been reinforced, which surprised them as well as the barrage of gunfire they met when they tried to force the door open. Of course, we know this turned into a 4 hour standoff/gun battle (the police alone fired over 5,000 rounds during the gun battle) – but the end result is what I am very satisfied with: “they got the fucker” – the mastermind was killed.

I should take a moment here to explain that normally I’m apolitical – I pretty much hate politics and tune out when they are being discussed. I’m actually surprised with myself regarding my intense feelings about the Paris attacks but I’m being brutally honest here with my blog. I live here, I’m not 5,600 miles away – I live 3.6 miles away from “ground zero”.

So, what is life like now in Paris? On Saturday, the 14^th (the day after the attacks) the streets were virtually empty in my arrondissement and absolutely empty in the areas near the attacks. Many of the cafes and shops were open in my area but there were not people out and about. My visitor and I walked to the Eiffel Tower, it had been “closed indefinitely” the night before. I wanted to see it without all the tourists there – normally 20,000 people a day visit the Tower and when we were there, in the afternoon, there were only a couple of hundred people – at most – at the Tower and the adjoining Champ de Mars (park). I thought “she” looked sad – if a building of metal can actually “look sad”.  It was eerie walking through the Champ de Mars because normally on a weekend it is teeming with families and all kinds of children are running around playing and having fun. There were no families on Saturday.

On Sunday the 15^th, a friend I have here in Paris and I went to most of the areas attacked to pay respect to those who were killed. It was quite humbling to be there. There were thousands of people at the Place de la République – I estimate one to two thousand people there alone, and at each of the cafés/bars there were hundreds of more people doing the same thing – paying respect, saying prayers, leaving candles and flowers. The devastation that took place a scant two days before was incredible. The buildings walls and windows had bullet holes in them.

It made it real, knowing that people’s lives were shattered – instantly – for no understandable reason. These were truly innocent people, they had no associations with the terrorists and there was no personal conflict between the terrorist and them (not that any killing is justified – it’s just that in most cases there is an underlying reason, i.e. gang shootings, domestic violence, workplace violence) and yet the terrorists chose that time and space to wreak havoc.

As my friend and I walked to the Bataclan music venue we saw people running in a panic towards us. My friend was frightened and asked me if we should be running, too. I told her no – that it was probably just ‘herd mentality’ and until we knew that something had happened we should just stay put, as we were in a safe and secluded area. One of the runners stop next to us and we asked him what had happened. He answered that he didn’t know, just people started running so he ran too (hence, the ‘herd mentality’). We watched the police arrive. They first stopped people from walking down the street toward the Bataclan but within about 5 minutes did allow people to continue walking down the street. I told my friend that it was probably just a car backfiring but people are so sensitive and afraid right now that they are panicking at anything (including her). We never really found out what it was, I heard two different stories: firecrackers or a light bulb popped at a café.

As each day takes us further from the attacks things are returning to normal for the residents of Paris. During the three days of National mourning all monuments, tourist attractions, museums, street markets and schools were closed. All have since reopened.

The times I’ve taken the metro it seems that they are not quite as packed as usual – but that could be just me projecting that I think there’s a fear to use the metro. Somedays the cafés in my neighborhood are overflowing with people but then today when I walked by them they seemed empty. I think the Parisians are having a hard time dealing with the attack and are still a bit skittish about how life goes on.

I do know that they are determined to not let DAESH control their lives – they will not let them ‘win’ and the joy of life (joie de vie) that this City of Lights offers will not be dimmed, it’s just taking a day at a time to get back to not constantly thinking about what happened and when will it happen again (because I’m convinced it will – both here in France and in the United States).

There has only been one night that I had trouble dealing with all of this and that was just a night or two ago. I don’t know why it reared its ugly head but it did. For the most part I’ve been pretty calm about it and I know it’s because of my faith in God. I know that He looks over me and keeps me safe. He also knows when my time is up and I leave this earth. My life is His plan and I’m not afraid of death – so when I’m supposed to go, I’ll go – it’s not up to me, it’s up to Him. Knowing that and believing that has kept me grounded throughout this ordeal plus with my police background I’m not worried, I intend to continue living my life and “to hell with DAESH.”

I will admit, the hardest time I’ve had throughout these 10 days is when I Skyped with my dad and he cried and, in his own way, asked me to come home. He isn’t the only one who has asked me to come home or asked me if I’ve changed my mind about living here – and my answer is that I AM home, Paris is my home – this is where I live.

 

Liberté, égalité, fraternité

13 novembre 2015 - Attaques Paris [Part 1]

Paris is attacked. Friday, 13 November 2015. Scores of innocent people are either injured or killed. Why? It’s the age old reason of almost every war fought on earth – religion.

Today, the 10^th day after the attack and while I’m on my second, fairly large, glass of wine, I’m finally ready to write about my experience. I doubt this blog post will have my wry sense of humor (well, at least I think it’s humor) interspersed because there was nothing even remotely humorous about that night.

But to talk about it, I have to digress to set the stage as to the reason for my feelings and observations. Certainly I was heavily influenced due to my choice of career – one can’t be in law enforcement with her feet on the ground, without the everyday life of being a cop affecting my overall look on things, particularly life.

And then, on top of that, I spent over 20 years teaching “Community Policing and Problem Solving” at the Police Academy speaking directly about the way certain milestones in our country changed the direction of the nation as a whole. This, too, as you will see, added to my perspective of the Paris attacks on 13 November 2015.

Paradigms and paradigm shifts that affect an entire country don’t often occur. Most people won’t experience one in their life, a number of people will experience only one, and few people will experience more. Paradigms were part of the lessons I taught at the Police Academy. There, usually sat young adults – kids – who had little idea what their chosen career actually was, as the examples set by movies and television are about as far from the truth as one can get.

When I first started teaching in the academy the students were close to my age but after 20 years, well many of them could be my grandchildren and had only heard about the significant paradigm shifts our country went through in the 20^th and 21^st centuries: the stock market crash in 1929, the assassination of John F. Kennedy, and 9-11. Each of these incidents changed the way the United States behaved, an example is that before 9-11 the word “terrorist” was not in our law enforcement vernacular – now it’s past its “buzz word” stage and has become ingrained in how law enforcement does business.

I have lived through two of these paradigm shifts – JKF and 9-11. And I feel as though I’ve now lived through a third one – the attacks on Paris, just in a different country.

When 9-11 occurred, I was at a law enforcement conference in Long Beach and watched it unfold while in the hotel gym before that day’s conference began (which it never happened – it basically shut down).  I was 3,000 miles away but felt acutely connected to what was happening, mostly because I felt absolutely inept. Here I was trained, and had the personality, to go towards high risk incidents yet I was unable to help in New York. I felt as though I was failing in my duties. (At the time I was working with the FBI at the Regional Computer Forensic Laboratory and we did send a few people out to New York but I wasn’t one those who got to respond).

Then, 10 days ago Paris was attacked. Once again I felt an overwhelming need – yes need – to help but there was absolutely nothing I could do. Again, I felt inept. I don’t really know how to express how hard it is to have spent my career helping people (whether they wanted it or not) and then being in a position of not being able to help when everything is literally “going to hell.”

Friday the 13^th – since I’m still fairly new to the customs here, when the day started I wasn’t sure if that date had any creepy significance in France or not. The day started pretty normal and I was blessed to have an out-of-town friend staying with me.

We met British relatives of hers for lunch. It was a first meeting for most of our group. We ate at Chez Rene in the 5^th arrondissement, which is on the left bank. After lunch we walked across the Seine and across the Ile-Saint-Louis to the right bank. We meandered around just enjoying the afternoon until we decided that the rue de Rivoli was far too crowded and took a side street – rue de Halles, where we found a café, not too far from the Châtelet metro station, to drink some wine. This is in the 1^st arrondissement.

We left about 7:00pm because it had started to rain a bit and we had a baby with us. We all decided to take the Châtelet metro to our homes (opposite sides of Paris) and I’m thankful that God was watching over us because my visitor and I would have normally just gone on a walk-about to find what we could see in this wonderful City. Had we done so, there is a good possibility that we would have been in, near or close to “ground zero” when the attacks occurred.

The attacks occurred in the 10^th and 11^th arrondissement. I won’t explain the purpose of arrondissements this time but the City of Paris is broken into 20 arrondissements (think neighborhoods). They do not run linear but instead spiral like that of a snail (escargot) shell. The 10^th and 11^th arrondissements are next to each other and the 1^st arrondissement is very close. Everything is really in walking distance in Paris. All are on the right bank – meaning north of the Seine (see map below).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So my houseguest and I started back to the 15^th arrondissement (left bank) but didn’t go directly home, instead we stopped at a café for a small dinner and probably made it home around 9:00pm. It wasn’t long after that we were both in bed.
 

At about 10:30pm (Paris time) my houseguest got a text from the United States asking about the bombings. That was the first we knew the city was under attack. I turned on the TV to the two English channels (BBC World News and SkyNews) and brought up on my computer an English French newspaper (The Local) to follow the story.
 

What was most interesting about this is that my houseguest was texting with her husband who was watching in the United States and he was getting information before we were seeing it in France. I remember distinctly he telling us that there was a firefight going on between the terrorists and police from the roof of the Bataclan music venue. He had this information maybe 2 or 3 minutes before we saw it on the TV in France.
 

Now, I don’t know if it’s because I am limited to English speaking news channels and if I understood the French language better and followed on a French language news station if the information would have been more up-to-date or not. We stayed glued to the television until 4:00am on Saturday morning when exhaustion, and the lessening of text and email messages to us from everyone in the United States (which I thank you so very much for your concern – I tried to keep everyone apprised of the situation via Facebook updates throughout the night) finally drove us to get some sleep.
 

It was almost surreal during the hours watching the newscasts. First off, the wail of sirens never stopped – all night/morning long I could hear them out my window. Not the ones in the 10^th and 11^th arrondissements where the attacks occurred but within my arrondissement – my guess was they were going to the attack area for support. Seeing, on the television as the crime scene expanded – over and over again, the number of people killed increasing hour by hour, the scores of people injured and then, of course, the hostages at the Bataclan. Recognizing the coordination of the attacks whether via suicide bomber or gun fire.
 

(Part 2 to be posted in a couple of days)