Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Crime and Punishment

I walked in through the front door from a foray into Carrouf and found my youngest extremely upset. It transpired that his telephone had been snatched out of his hands as he walked along the road and thrown on the floor. A gratuitous act of vandalism. The phone is, unsurprisingly, broken.

The vandal was a boy of about my son's age, unknown to my son, so not from the village, and no prizes for guessing his ethnic origin. The kid ran off, but he picked the wrong target because my son went after him, brought him down and gave him a good beating.

I heartily applauded this action and rang the Police Municipal to report the event. They were as surprised as me because we don't have any dodgy immigrants here, so god knows where this kid sprang from. Anyway, they noted what happened and will be keeping their eyes open. The Police Municipal know all the kids around here as they are often patrolling around the schools and intervening in road and bike safety lessons. It would be great if they could pick him up and frighten the bejesus out of him.

Petit con.

Crime is on the increase in France. Last October, violent attacks increased by 9%, theft went up by 8% and financial infraction by 18%. Delinquency increased by 8% in one month and mobile phone theft is up too. French society is getting rougher, less safe and more violent. The Paris cités are the worst, but nowhere is safe nowadays. Not even my cosy village.

Interestingly, in a recent survey by Nouvelles de France, when asked if they would buy a gun on the black market if they could, two thirds of respondents replied in the affirmative. This corresponds with a survey carried out by Fox News in the US last month where two thirds of respondents said they would be prepared to break the law if guns were outlawed.

In case you're wondering, I replied 'no', but I could change my mind... if it came to it. One thing that is becoming clearer over time is the French state is an unreliable protector of its citizens, Holland inspires no confidence in anyone but a small number of the elite bobo Parisians, and ordinary folk are feeling increasingly insecure.

Anyway, let's not get too depressed. Here's Cyprien to cheer us all up with his own tale of woe about a stolen laptop.


14 comments:

  1. I loved Cyprien...especially brandishing the form at the thief!

    But it's been like that for years...you're a little guy, the police aren't interested...but if you're son of Sarkozy then it's police leave cancelled in Paris to find your scooter...

    And that's what's wrong in France...and in the U.K. too it seems...

    Helen

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    1. Yes, justice is an unequal concept these days. I was glad my son dealt out his own justice. :)

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  2. Hah! Joke doing the rounds in Spain at the moment (re crime):

    "A THIEF was apprehended last night who wasn't a POLITICIAN, wasn't a BANKER and wasn't a member of the ROYAL FAMILY, so the police immediately proceeded to detain him."

    All the others are currently embroiled in large scale financial corruption scandals at the moment, and will likely have no action taken against them. Small wonder crime is on the rise with that kind of example from the most powerful (and richest) members of society.

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    1. Exactly, the rot moves downwards, but is started at the top. That's what modern day top people just don't understand. If they act with impunity, everyone else will too. The moral code of yore is no more, now it's grab what you can while you can, and don't worry, if you're a top guy, you risk nothing.

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  3. Your son has all my sympathy. He must be very angry and shaken up. I'm glad they didn't pull a knife on him. Bigfoot was beaten up by the same gang twice in a row just because they felt like hitting someone. The gendarmerie werre informed and of course they know the kids, who seem to have started their "career" very young, aided and abetted by absent parents and as you rightly say, a justice system that gives them get-out clauses. In Bigfoot's case the gang is an Hollande success: mixed ethnicity, with a blond and blue-eyed, only-just-adult boss. L'union fait la force, as they say around here. I'm going to have their guts for garters if they touch so much as a hair of my son's head again.

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    1. Thanks, MM, it must have been pretty horrendous for your son too. It's unsurprising if people decide to take the law into their own hands because they just cannot count on justice being done professionally.

      Western leaders are all such wimps these days, unable or unwilling to get to grips with violent elements in society, and crack down on gangs.

      Taubira is talking about how prison doesn't work and criminals should be treated differently. Frankly I don't give a shit if it doesn't work, I just want these violent trouble-makers off the streets. Let's bring in the law of three strikes for violent crime!

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    2. Creating a Mum Mafia could be a good solution.... Meet you behind the bikeshed with the egg beater and a rolling pin :-D

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    3. Excellent idea, and I'll bring an instrument of torture, my tennis racket-shaped taser fly/mozzie zapper! Very painful on delicate parts... (no, I wasn't thinking of THOSE delicate parts!).

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  4. What a terrible thing to happen! I hope that your son is not too traumatised. My teenage daughter takes the tube everyday in London and she has never has a single problem so far. What is going on in France? To make matters even worse, it looks like they want less criminals to go to prison. Lovely, isn't it? Now they will think that they are above the law.

    Surely feeling safe is one of the most basic rights, right?

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    1. He's fine, but his phone isn't. I'll have to get him a new one.

      That'll be the second one lost to vandals. The first one was in his bag. Some kid picked up the bag, and threw it against the wall and then jumped on it. Makes you wonder about their parents.

      The prison business is unbelievable. There was an article about Mme Taubira in Riposte Laïque today and her destructive ideas. Read and weep for your countrymen (by birth):
      http://ripostelaique.com/taubira-chouchoute-ses-delinquants-et-refuse-leur-emprisonnement.html

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  5. Your son giving this scumbag a good ol' ass whooping probably helped to lower the crime rate in your village by 25% overall. Word will get around about your boy, so it's less likely another shit bag child roaming the streets will screw with your boy!

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  6. I applaud your son too but be careful... this past summer something similar happened to my husband and because it was obvious that he clearly won the scuffle (that was provoked by the other guy), the guy and his family pressed charges against my husband, said it was a racially motivated attack (laughable because my husband is the least racist person around these parts, plus he has a mixed race wife), took my husband to court, and now he has to pay €2500 and is on probation for a year. Not bad though considering the guys lawyer asked for €10,000 and five years jail!!!

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    1. I'm shocked, Sara, but not surprised. It's well known that the justice system in France is in a shocking state, and certain people know how to work the system.

      It's also set to get worse because Mme Taubira wants criminals to be treated as victims of the state and punished lightly. The real victims won't get much sympathy from her.

      If ever such a situation arises again, get your phone out and film the altercation!

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