Queen Elizabeth II. Jubilee Time. Everywhere I go, the French mention the Queen. Do they regret axing their own monarchy at the infamous Bastille?
I'm old enough to remember the Queen's ascension to the throne - just! All schoolchildren in the UK were given a silver spoon and commemorative mug imprinted with the Queen's face and the date. Wish I still had them now, but I don't think they would be worth anything as so many were produced. Many streets had their own party, with a long wooden trestle table down the middle of the road. Jellies galore. But, for me, it all brought back memories of how free children were back in the 1950s. In the summer holidays I remember being sent out to play with the rejoinder: come back at 6.00 for your tea. I don't believe there was any less crime: because it wasn't much reported (no TV or media saturation), no-one knew about it, therefore didn't worry. Today in the UK, I think people like having a stabilising, continuing monarchy. It's a comforting, familiar thing against the uncertainties of the future.
And M. Hollande for the French? People would prefer if he married his partner! What on earth is he going to say when he makes a state visit to countries like Saudi Arabia, where it's a crime to have sex outside marriage? Also, how credible will he be to the Pope?
On verra.
Showing posts with label crime. Show all posts
Showing posts with label crime. Show all posts
27th November 2008
It is now one year since the traffic accident that cost the lives of two teenagers when their motorbike collided with a police car in a place called Villiers-le-Bel, a suburb of Paris. Amazingly, the protests that followed it are still going strong now. I still remember all the unrest that followed, when a hundred police officers were injured and several shops and buildings were burned. Six inquiries have been launched into the incident but to date none have been concluded. As in all countries, the judiciary moves at only one pace: dead slow.
But the interesting point for me was how, on the one hand, the poor families of the deceased seek to justify that their children should have been left alone to do whatever criminal action they wished, whilst on the other hand, the police seek to justify that they are above the law and can do as they please on the roads. "The police car, which was traveling without warning lights or signal and above the legal speed limit, could have posed a danger to anyone", said Jean-Pierre Mignard, the lawyer for the victims' families. Well, yes. Lawyers seem to be able to say or do anything in our courts, displaying a marked abililty for acting and obfuscation - in fact, anything that promotes their cause and bank balance, irrespective of whether real justice is seen to be performed.
In the year since the incident, the state has contributed 6.4 million euros to reconstructing a school and a library that were damaged in the unrest. The destoyed Louis-Jouvet library has now been replaced by a new one, the Aimé-Césaire, which opened in September.
And in the future? Will anything change between anarchic young people, hapless keystone cops, and money-grabbing lawyers? On verra. We'll see, but I doubt it.
But the interesting point for me was how, on the one hand, the poor families of the deceased seek to justify that their children should have been left alone to do whatever criminal action they wished, whilst on the other hand, the police seek to justify that they are above the law and can do as they please on the roads. "The police car, which was traveling without warning lights or signal and above the legal speed limit, could have posed a danger to anyone", said Jean-Pierre Mignard, the lawyer for the victims' families. Well, yes. Lawyers seem to be able to say or do anything in our courts, displaying a marked abililty for acting and obfuscation - in fact, anything that promotes their cause and bank balance, irrespective of whether real justice is seen to be performed.
In the year since the incident, the state has contributed 6.4 million euros to reconstructing a school and a library that were damaged in the unrest. The destoyed Louis-Jouvet library has now been replaced by a new one, the Aimé-Césaire, which opened in September.
And in the future? Will anything change between anarchic young people, hapless keystone cops, and money-grabbing lawyers? On verra. We'll see, but I doubt it.
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