
---------------------------------------------------------------
        CONTRE INFOS
        EUROPEAN COUNTER NETWORK
        PARIS / FRANCE
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        24 December 1995 / N- 04
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        Ecn c/o Reflex - 21 ter, rue Voltaire, 75011 Paris (France)
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        Counter@dialup.francenet.fr
        http://www.anet.fr/~aris/
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        1) STATE OF EMMERGENCY IN FIGURES

        2) VIGIPIRATE, ENOUGH !

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THE STATE OF EMMERGENCY IN FIGURES
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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)

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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...

