Major protests in France against the lockdown and against the national security laws that were voted in last week on very low MP turnout. The police can now use drones with video cameras and facial recognition at demonstrations. In France it is now illegal to take photos or video of police, an activity that is permitted in China https://twitter.com/AnonymeCitoyen/status/1329385383914823681?s=20
One video of the police aggression is bloody frightening and now filming illegal.
God help us..
Strictly speaking the law says that it´s a crime to take photos of, or distribute photos of, a police officer´s face that allows identification of the officer. There´s a suspicion that the police will just arrest anybody filming, on the assumption that it could be a live broadcast with no pixellation of faces https://www.lemonde.fr/police-justice/article/2020/11/05/loi-securite-globale-un-outil-pour-permettre-aux-forces-de-l-ordre-de-cacher-leurs-derapages_6058574_1653578.html
Had there not been a "covid-mania" going on, it is extremely doubtful that the so-called "security" legislation would have even been proposed, let alone passed.
In the midst of a "lockdown" and media frenzy about anybody with a cough, there was hardly any debate.
The disturbing question is why the government wanted to pass this twisted law in the first place?
There have been various scandals about French police recently with one journalist going under-cover and enlisting as a police officer then writing a damning account of how they behave. The strong suspicion is that the intention is to suppress any investigative reporting into police behaviour.
With the police under pressure to enforce un-enforceable covid-lunacy, this could just be a pathetic attempt by a government to suck up to them, rather than, for example, give them a pay rise or improve working conditions.
CORONA-MADNESS LATEST
We have left the realms of farce and are entering the twilight zone.
Amongst many self-congratulating self-administered back-slaps on Tuesday evening, Monsieur Macron delivered the "good news":
Shops will re-open as of 28 November but, bizarrely, people still cannot go out "unless they need to". So, who is going to go to the shops?
This twisted situation "might" end on 15 December ("depending on the numbers") and be replaced by a nationwide curfew between 9 pm and 7 am, and which will be lifted on Christmas eve and New Year's eve.
Hallelujah.
Now, these weird and twisted "rules" only apply to people "who do not need to go out or work". Working from home is just "encouraged where possible". And, it is entirely up to you, to judge if you can or cannot do your job from home, and act accordingly.
Basically, all these rules apply to a minority of people: those who have comfortable white-collar jobs that they choose to do from home. Everybody else is exempt. Including your pet dog whom you can take for a walk at any time, curfew or not.
So, all people calling for covid-rules to be voluntary, rejoice! For, in France, they are! Except the government would never dare say it so explicitly!
So, what is the point of all these regulations? This dastardly virus that is already everywhere and is a threat to about 0.05% of any population obviously has no purchase on the great majority of working people who go about their business every day, but anybody who can work from home and chooses not to, is definitely in danger. Geddit?
It is quite amazing that these august officers of state, supposedly in charge of running governments and countries, are either too stupid or too brazen to act this way. Either way, they appear to have lost any sense of shame.
Traffic has not diminished that much on the roads. This pretence of a "confinement" or lockdown is relevant only to a voluntary minority.
But one nasty impact is truly felt: While everything is pretty much open, restaurants on the other hand, those hotbeds of deadly disease of course, will remain closed until 20 January and as for bars, there is no end in sight. Not that it matters much either because there are actually hardly any pure "bars" in France. The vast majority are bar-cafe-restaurant types.
And the exceptions continue to be bar-cafe-restaurants that sell tobacco, the so-called "tabac" shops. These are open ostensibly for the purpose of just selling cigarettes - whose impact on health is far less serious than the common coronavirus, of course. And also anybody can open his/her bar-cafe-restaurant for "take-away".
As such, the speakeasy culture is thriving and growing.
Two "tabacs" are near me. Both are also operating as fully-functioning bars. The TV screens are up showing the horse races and lottery draws, and the customers - all of whom just popped in to buy a pack of smokes, of course - are sitting and standing with beers in hand urging on their favourite horse or set of numbers.
We went out to dinner last Saturday at a bar-restaurant ostensibly open for take-away. The chairs were on top of the tables in the immediate forefront facing the street and the usual signs in the windows declaring "masks obligatory" and "take-away only".
(Most people abide by the compulsory mask rule but the present writer is far from being in a minority of one; choosing to wear a smile instead.)
Once inside and when you are recognised by the patron as a trusted regular, you walk through to the back of the establishment where everything is as normal. Tables laid out, people sitting and eating and drinking and generally making merry.
I previously wrote in this forum about one such establishment where the patron used plastic cups for drinks to give some further illusion of "take-away". I have since been back and proper glasses are in use now.
Yesterday, as I was walking back from the post office, I popped into one local cafe to say hello to the patron whom I have known for a while. He had the usual "take-away" paraphernalia but no sooner had we started chatting than he offered me a bottle of beer that I sipped happily at the bar while we talked.
So, "drinks on the house" are still available too!
Hardly anyone is actually "afraid" any more, although the government behaves as if everybody is or should be.
More people are increasingly treating the government and its rules with quiet contempt, and the distance between the state of "crisis" promulgated by the government, and reality, is growing wider.
