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 10th and 11th 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 14th (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 15th, 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
