Blue Lives Shatter

This is what police in France have to put up with these days, under the socialiste government that has manacled them and berated them for the past five years.

Vivement le 7 mai !

http://www.lepoint.fr/societe/1er-mai-affrontements-en-marge-de-la-manifestation-parisienne-deux-crs-blesses-01-05-2017-2123987_23.php

http://www.lemonde.fr/election-presidentielle-2017/article/2017/05/01/partout-en-france-les-syndicats-desunis-face-au-front-national_5120504_4854003.html

At this attack, the police didn't even shoot back.   While they watched their comrade being turned into bacon, they responded with ... tear-gas (against a mob that was already well-protected against that).

The CGT (Communist unions) chortled over the incident, speaking of poulet grillé (poulet, literally ‘chicken’, is slang for ‘cop’).
It recalls the scene in Vietnam, 1963, when Madame Nhu exulted over the stoic self-immolation of a Buddhist monk: "She clapped her hands in delight at the news.  She called it 'barbecue à bonze".

 ~

Berlin as well  had its share of incendiary attacks on police.

Berlin, 1 May 2017

32 officers were injured in Berlin alone.

http://www.berchtesgadener-anzeiger.de/politik_artikel,-32-Polizisten-bei-Demo-am-1-Mai-in-Berlin-verletzt-_arid,331144.html


For the background to such atrocities (cela ne date pas d'hier), consult:

"Entre bleus"

[Update Jan 2018]  And now, the turn of prison-guards:

https://www.ladepeche.fr/article/2018/01/15/2721822-agression-vendin-vieil-prison-bloquee-centaine-surveillants.html

Les opérations de blocage des prisons ont repris mardi matin à l'appel des principaux syndicats de personnel pénitentiaire pour protester contre l'agression de trois surveillants à Vendin-le-Vieil (Pas-de-Calais), où doit se rendre la ministre de la Justice, au lendemain d'une nouvelle agression de sept gardiens à Mont-de-Marsan.

Ces sept surveillants ont été agressés et blessés à coups de poing par un détenu "radicalisé", au centre pénitentiaire Pémégnan, à Mont-de-Marsan (Landes), lundi vers 15H30, a indiqué la CGT à l'AFP, confirmant une information de franceinfo.

Malgré la démission du directeur de la prison de Vendin-le-Vieil, où Nicole Belloubet doit aller dans la matinée, et le "plan pénitentiaire global" promis par Emmanuel Macron pour fin février, les syndicats ont reconduit le mouvement lancé lundi, sans parvenir toutefois à s'entendre sur les revendications à transmettre au ministère de la Justice.

Lundi soir, le détenu islamiste allemand Christian Ganczarski, accusé d'être responsable de l'agression de la prison de Vendin-le-Vieil jeudi, a été mis en examen pour tentatives d'assassinats par un juge antiterroriste.

 
 

.

“Entre bleus”

Something potentially quite important happened in Paris last night, which  so far as I can tell  has not been reported by any American source (though it appears in a couple of English-language Russian ones).   A sort of “Blue Lives Matter” demonstration, held by saying they have had it was the increasing tempo of extremely violent (and often unpunished) attacks against les forces de l’ordre.   The demonstators began at the hospital where one of their number, badly burned from a Molotov cocktail launched by a mob of djeunes in the banlieue, was hanging ente la vie et la mort.  They then circled the Arc de Triomphe in their squad cars, sirens blaring -- and (thanks to a new counter-terror law that allows officers to retain their weapons while off-duty) fully armed.

The demo was set up by officers  without the backing of their own (housebroken) union, beginning with this message on social media:

Face à une hiérarchie carriériste, des élites syndicales enlisées dans leurs conflits, et une justice complètement désintéressée par notre sort, nous devons nous souder. Entre bleus.

This all might subside or (goaded by increasingly brazen attacks on them in the banlieues) it could develop rapidly, in a way that might catch the bien-pensant press with their pants down, reduced to a headline “French Government Falls in Coup”, which Americans will not have seen coming.  Check these out:

http://www.lepoint.fr/societe/viry-chatillon-des-policiers-manifestent-sur-les-champs-elysees-18-10-2016-2076727_23.php

http://www.lefigaro.fr/actualite-france/2016/10/18/01016-20161018ARTFIG00311-champs-elysees-la-colere-froide-de-la-police.php?pagination=4#nbcomments

Trump and his supporters are late to the parade.  For some years now, Europe has been the crucible in which the Clash of Civilizations has been fought.

[Update 19 October 2016] Ça continue:

http://www.leparisien.fr/faits-divers/policiers-nouvelle-manifestation-le-26-octobre-cazeneuve-recoit-les-syndicats-en-urgence-19-10-2016-6227211.php

«Ras le bol ! »

[Update 20 October 2016] Ça continue encore:

Plusieurs centaines de policiers se sont réunis au Trocadero, en face de la tour Eiffel . Ils se sont dirigés ensuite vers les Champs-Elysées, en appelant les passants ou les habitants à venir les rejoindre.

«Cazeneuve t'es foutu, la police la police est dans la rue», scandaient les manifestants à l'adresse du ministre de l'Intérieur, ainsi que «Falcone démission» à l'adresse de Jean-Marc Falcone, le directeur de la police nationale.

En civil, certains portant un brassard ou un foulard masquant en partie leur visage, certains brandissaient des pancartes sur lesquelles on pouvait notamment lire: «Marre d'en prendre plein la gueule», «Ras le bol» ou encore «Soutien à nos collègues blessés».

Un petit nombre de personnes, munis d'affiches réclamant «la vérité» pour des proches victimes selon eux de violences policières, a rapidement été écarté par les forces de l'ordre.

http://www.leparisien.fr/faits-divers/pres-de-500-policiers-manifestent-a-nouveau-ce-soir-a-paris-20-10-2016-6233502.php

[Update 23 October 2016]  The nightly demonstrations by fed-up police continue, in Paris and in provincial cities.  These have been peaceful -- unlike the anti-cop counterdemonstrators:

La manifestation, interdite par le préfet de la Loire, a pourtant bien eu lieu. Et a laissé des traces dans la ville. Samedi après-midi, le défilé d’un collectif pour « le désarmement de la police et la démilitarisation des conflits » s’est soldé par de nombreuses dégradations à Saint Etienne.

Des abribus, des distributeurs de banque, la vitrine d’une agence bancaire et le local de la fédération départementale du Parti socialiste ont notamment été saccagés. Devant la Bourse du travail, plusieurs prises de parole ont d’abord eu lieu pour « dénoncer les répressions policières sous toutes leurs formes et la guerre coloniale menée par la France au Moyen-Orient ».

http://www.20minutes.fr/lyon/1947923-20161023-saint-etienne-manif-desarmer-police-donne-lieu-multiples-degradations

[Update 4 November 2016]  Now a few firemen are joining in:

Quelque 500 policiers et personnes les soutenant se sont rassemblés vendredi soir devant le commissariat de Béziers et la sous-préfecture, environ 200 devant la mairie d'Avignon, une centaine au Mans, et 700 à Lyon.

A Béziers, les policiers municipaux ont été rejoints par des policiers nationaux des commissariats de Béziers et d'Agde, par des pompiers, des habitants de Béziers, par deux magistrats et par une dizaine d'avocats. Ils ont scandé "Policiers en colère" et "La racaille en prison", et portaient des pancartes "J'aime ma police".

A Avignon, les manifestants ont entonné La Marseillaise devant l'hôtel de ville, sur la place de l'Horloge, et les agents, qui étaient deux fois plus nombreux que vendredi dernier, ont été applaudis par une dizaine de pompiers qui avaient pris part au rassemblement.

http://www.lefigaro.fr/flash-actu/2016/11/05/97001-20161105FILWWW00021-policiers-700-manifezstants-a-lyon.php

Notably, just as with the Manif pour tous,  Marine Le Pen is among the abonnés absents, providing neither leadership nor even support.   She arrived at her present position by an accident of family ties (which she later severed);  perhaps she is not up to the task.

[Update 13 Nov 2016]  German police, cowed into masochism by their politically-correct masters, also have cause for complaint.  Here, in North Rhine-Westphalia, an attempt to write a parking ticket caused an attack by a clan of Turks, that injured ten cops, sending one to the hospital.  They felt no qualms about attacking police, including the backups, knowing that the police would not defend themselves with force.  Most German news sources don't mention the ethnicity of the attackers;  here, in a radical break with its past P.C. practice, Die Welt does:

https://www.welt.de/vermischtes/article159455674/Gewaltexzess-nach-Streit-ueber-falsch-geparktes-Auto.html

This sort of anti-police (anti-everyone, actually) "clan" attack, has become commoner in Germany, typically involving Turks or Lebanese.

[Update 22 February 2017]  Here is a sample of the things French cops have to put up with:

L’embuscade se met en place aux alentours de 19 heures. En patrouille à bord de leur véhicule de service, les policiers municipaux circulent dans la Grande rue, qui, malgré son nom, est en fait une étroite voie sinueuse qui débouche en face du marché couvert. Subitement, un piéton assène des coups de pied sur la portière de leur voiture. Le policier au volant descend pour demander des comptes. Dès qu’il a posé le pied par terre, une bande d’une quinzaine de personnes surgit d’une ruelle adjacente.

Les agents expérimentés, l’un d’eux étant notamment un ancien militaire, se défendent pendant huit minutes, avant l’arrivée de renforts. «Je salue leur maîtrise. Ils n’ont même pas sorti leurs tonfas face à des agresseurs à mains nues, assure Eric Mehlhorn. La légitime défense, c’est répondre à la hauteur de l’attaque. Ils ont fait preuve de courage.»

http://www.leparisien.fr/savigny-sur-orge-91600/deux-policiers-municipaux-lynches-dans-un-guet-apens-a-savigny-sur-orge-22-02-2017-6701223.php

You might wonder why the two beaten policemen did not fire on their attackers.  Well, they couldn’t:  they’re not allowed to bear arms.  All they had were little tonfas -- and these they didn’t even use.   Their role, under the Socialos, is to lie there quietly and get stomped on.  And stomped on.  And stomped on.

[Update, May Day 2017]  This is what policemen in Paris have to put up with:

Flic rôti à la mode de Taubira

Their response?  Nothing harsher than tear-gas.

[Update 14 juillet 2017]

Even as Bastille-day festivities  bathed the Champs-Elysées, the racaille of the banlieue were setting items on fire, hoarding projectiles, and laying an ambush for the police who responded to the provocations.   

But this time, one policement, being beaten by multiple assailants, actually dared to fire back:

http://www.lefigaro.fr/flash-actu/2017/07/15/97001-20170715FILWWW00085-sevran-un-policier-menace-blesse-un-homme.php

Flames and inflammation

In principle, this site does not comment on local news.  Facebook already handles that, down to a granularity of minutes and inches.  But public rhetoric does fall within our brief, as a linguist.  And as the city burns, it is hard not to notice these wingèd words of an elected official, destined to pass into legend.

Mayor of Baltimore, sounding like a French socialo:

Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake held a press conference Saturday alongside community and religious leaders and asked for peace as hundreds marched in Baltimore in honor of Freddie Gray.

But when one reporter asked to comment on how Baltimore police responded to the protestors she said she instructed officers to allow protestors to express themselves and that “we also gave those who wished to destroy   space to do that as well.”

http://baltimore.cbslocal.com/2015/04/25/baltimore-mayor-gave-those-who-wished-to-destroy-space-to-do-that/

Such, indeed, is the covert policy of administrations that send cops unprotected, in short sleeves, to face swarms of assailants, knowing they will be attacked;  and secretly hoping that the sight of injured officers  will pacify the mob.  But, Madame Mayor -- you're not supposed to say that out loud.  -- Anyhow, she got her wish.

Police say 15 officers have been injured in the Baltimore riots and two are still in the hospital.

More than two dozen people have been arrested after people looted stores, set cars on fire and threw bricks at police.

As police moved away from the mall into a nearby neighborhood, the mall became unprotected and people started carrying clothes and other items away.

Cars have been burned, other stores have been looted and a pharmacy caught fire during the mayhem.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2015/04/27/us/ap-us-suspect-dies-baltimore-the-latest.html

Fire sale

Smoke billowed from the broken windows of the pharmacy. Police said via Twitter that rioters cut a hose firefighters were using to battle the blaze.

Police said on Twitter that looters were "continuing to break into businesses and set cars on fire'' in the area, and that they were responding to reports of looting inside Mondawmin Mall.

http://www.wfmynews2.com/story/news/nation/2015/04/27/baltimore-police-protests/26470867/

Shop till you drop!

The mayor’s remark may be the most ill-starred executive intervention  since Dubya’s “Bring it on!”, which indeed helped bring it on, to the discomfort of the guys who had to do the actual fighting.

Reader comments:

There's no walking it back. She said it and she meant it.

-

Hate to say it, but the residents of Baltimore have earned the reputation. I remember the 1978 snow storm, and the looting that followed.

~

[Update 28 April 2015]  The media have done a good job pointing out a most curious background of Monday’s rioting:  the flash-mob aspect, based on social-media propagation of an invitation to a “purge” at a certain mall.  
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-riots/bs-md-ci-freddie-gray-violence-chronology-20150427-story.html#navtype=outfit
 The reference -- and it is an essentially literary reference, not a tropism of the id -- is to a fairly schlocky but popularly successful movie called “The Purge”, depicting a controlling dystopian future  in which, however, annually, for a brief period  all law and morality are suspended.  That might strike you as a weird futuristic wrinkle on the standard post-apocalyptic flick, but actually the notion has roots in classical antiquity:  in the ancient Roman festival of the Saturnalia.  Since Wiki has a characteristically excellent article on that, I’ll not discuss that Fasching-like revelry further.

Gaudeamus  igitur

Wikipedia itself, however, in its article on “The Purge”, offers an even more recondite classical comparison, to the Crypteia -- q.v.

Rule of thumb in Socialmedialand:  The rioters are calling for The Purge;  the Second-Amendment fundamentalists, for the Crypteia (in the Plutarchian sense).

(Incidentally -- purely from the standpoint of art criticism -- notice the similarity in the staffage of the painter’s vision, and the actual figures frolicking at the 7/11.

Uncanny.

Here is a cropping of the same painting that brings out the more classical aspect.  You could probably do the same thing with the photograph -- the youngster in the orange hoodie  corresponding to the young man seen full-face.)

[Update 30 April 2015]  This mayor continues to amaze.

BALTIMORE — With buildings ablaze and looters rampaging through city streets, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake faced television cameras Monday night and sternly denounced the rioters as “thugs.” The next day, with some black residents in an uproar over a word they call racially charged, she walked it back.

“There are no thugs in Baltimore,” the mayor, who is African-American, said at a church, where she met with members of the clergy.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/30/us/baltimore-mayor-treads-fine-line-in-divided-city.html?_r=0

So, we suddenly have a thug-free Baltimore!  That is very good news indeed.

[Update 3 May 2015]   Now, here’s a detail you probably haven’t heard:

Residents say arsonists singled out businesses owned by Asian-Americans during the rioting on Monday.

Try fitting that into The Narrative.

It actually does make sense, though at a level deeper than that in which the media deals.   We have glanced at the matter here.

~

Meanwhile in Tel Aviv, même jeu :

Une cinquantaine de personnes, en majorité des policiers, ont été blessées dans des heurts dimanche 3 mai au soir à Tel-Aviv après un rassemblement contre les violences policières et la discrimination dont sont victimes les Israéliens d'origine éthiopienne.

La police montée a tiré des grenades assourdissantes pour disperser la foule et l'empêcher de s'en prendre à la mairie de Tel-Aviv. Les manifestants ont lancé des pierres, des bouteilles et des chaises sur la police. Des canons à eau et des bombes lacrymogènes ont également été utilisés pour éloigner des manifestants des rues alentours, en vain.

Selon la police, 46 policiers et au moins sept manifestants ont été blessés

http://www.lemonde.fr/proche-orient/article/2015/05/03/a-tel-aviv-la-communaute-ethiopienne-manifeste-contre-la-violence-policiere_4626613_3218.html

That’s a lot of injured cops …

[Update 4 May 2015]  Oh, great;  thanx, Fox.

Baltimore police said on Monday that a Fox News report of a black man being shot by police in the city was not true, and the cable news network quickly issued an apology.

Baltimore police later tweeted that the report of a man being shot was not true and that a suspect had been arrested at the scene with a handgun.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/05/04/us-usa-police-baltimore-shooting-idUSKBN0NP1TJ20150504

That sort of premature-ejaculation on the part of reporters  could get buildings burned.

Manichean Mathematics

In overwrought politics and religion, it is commonplace to demonize some of one’s foes.  Thus, for Christians, the Antichrist;  for Muslims, the comparable Dajjâl.   On the cover of the current Time, Hilary Clinton appears with a pair of horns.  So it goes.

Although disputes exist (both personal and professional) within the ranks of mathematicians, you really don’t find that sort of thing, so far as I know.   About as far as it goes  is witty dismissals of some subdiscipline;  as, Cantor’s innovations in the transfinite, which some dismissed as “more theology than mathematics” -- theology, though, not diabolism.  Or Category Theory as “the higher macramé” (as wits had it back when I was in college.  Since then, the Category approach has knit -- or rather knotted, to continue the metaphor -- some quite interesting structures, that seem to hold.)

So it was with some surprise that I ran across this passage:

Euclid has been the evil genius … for the history of mathematics.

-- Imre Lakatos, Proofs and Refutations (1976), p. 140

(Having just the other day watched the old Fritz Lang film, “The Testament of Dr Mabuse”, this phrase delivered a particular chill.) 

In the course of his book, Lakatos does permit himself some unkind or dismissive digs at certain mathematicians, historians of the field, or styles of mathematizing, but this formulation seemed extreme.  Yet as the author’s footnote immediately reveals, it is taken straight from so sober a source as R. B. Braithwaite, who (in 1953) called Euclid the “evil genius of philosophy of science”  -- though, to be sure, the “good genius of mathematics" itself.   (One pictures twin miniature Euclids, one red with a tail, one white with wings, perched on Donald Duck’s shoulders and whispering conflicting counsels.)

~

This mild and forgettable aside  yet brought back memories of Berkeley days, when some of my friends were refugees from the group then known as the National Caucus of Labor Committees, a sect around the guru Lynn Marcus (later known as Lyndon Larouche).   That formation made diabolization a positive organizing principle of their style of thought.   What made it all so fascinating to follow, was trying to guess whom they would seize on to demonize: Zbigniew Brzezinski, all right, but -- the Queen of England?  (And that, lastingly.  Never was a doily of an old lady more improbably cast.)   And then things got really interesting when the dichotomization was extended to figures from intellectual history.   As, Plato they liked (yay, Plato);  but he appeared ever in a duality, contrasting with “the evil Aristotle”.

The NCLC even extended this perspective to mathematics, their particular hero being Riemann (again, hoorah hoorah).   Whom they chose as the anti-Riemann  I forget, but anyhow it was impressive that a group that was vying for converts in an arena crowded with such aggressively ignorant rival leftist sects (for the NCLC was formally of the Left at that time)  as the Weathermen, various Maoist groups, the "Symbionese" 'Liberation' '''Army''', the Black Panthers and so forth,  had even heard of such figures as Riemann, and deemed them of world-historical importance.

(Note:  It is by way of arcane allusion to that episode, that I titled my ongoing feuilleton of dark doings among the Illuminati, the Riemann Conspiracy.  Something like three people will get the joke.)

Is .... this .... the face of Evil ??

.

Acrônym øf thè Däy: « äRTeäS »

In the staid banking capital of Zürich,  masked black bloc activists (anarchist APOisten)  ran wild last night.   As such, that is no concern of this blog;  but we shall notice some curious linguistic detail.

Die Randalierer trugen ein Banner mit der Aufschrift «Reclaim the Streets». In den vergangenen Jahren war es unter diesem Titel mehrmals zu erheblichen Sachbeschädigungen gekommen. Am Freitag nun riefen die Veranstalter im Laufe des Tages per SMS dazu auf, sich um 22 Uhr im Sihlhölzlipark in Zürich-Wiedikon zu treffen. In Aussicht gestellt wurde der «one & only dancefloor» unter dem Motto «äRTeäS», hinter dem sich das Akronym RTS für «Reclaim the Streets» versteckt.

http://www.nzz.ch/zuerich/randale-in-der-langstrasse-1.18443879

If you read about this in the anglophone press, you might assume that this slogan, «Reclaim the Streets»,  was a translation from the German, for the convenience of English-speakers.   Not so;  the following photo from Zurich last night, provides ocular proof:

Not only that, but the expression “black block” (or “black bloc”) has gone international.  A while ago (an Egyptian friend informed me) Angela Merkel apologized to Egypt for the “black block” anarchists there, who had imported a German ideology;  when I asked him, How did that come out in Arabic, he said:  “black block”.

Strangest of all, though, is this motto äRTeäS, within which the acronym RTS (for “Reclaim The Streets”) lies perdu in plain sight.   It looks like some new offbeat flavor offering from Häagen-Dazs, or perhaps a song by Mötley Crüe.   As for orthoëpic guidance, such as we commonly offer to our glottophilic flock, we are at a loss.  Conjecturally,  the word begins with a sort of vocalic sheep-bleat, and then the majuscularity of the following two consonants is signaled by pronouncing them at top volume while waving your arms (Monty Python has an instructive video along these lines), then back to a sheep-bleat, then back to the flapping.   Either that, or the vowels are silent.

[Note:  Just kidding.  If you simply pronounce the letters "R T S" in the German fashion, it comes out rather like ärteäs. ]

A polyglot German reader of the above article comments:

Ein gewalttätiger Anarcho-Fascho-Mob holt sich die gratis Party unter allesamt englischen Organisationskürzeln für eine "friday night" nach deren Gusto.

At all events, äRTeäS is but the latest acronymic/cryptographic contribution from the German-speaking world, to the contemporary lexicon of political street-protest.   Some others we have elucidated here:  

   HoGeSa, PeGiDa, and Dügida walk into a bar…

~

The signage of one of the vandalized shops (international anarchy strikes back  against the tyranny of the corner bakery!)  is an interesting anglo-alemannic mix:

Znüni ?  It’s Schwizerdütsch for what in general German would be Imbiß (etymologically: ‘in-bite’):  ‘snack’, or rather specifically a morning snack, since etymologically it means “a nine-o’clock-er” (from the Alemannic equivalents of zu + neun).

~

Was für Krimi liest wohl Dr. Sigmund Freud?

Schauen Sie mal!

Sigmund Freud und Sherlock Holmes

~

[Update 14 December 2014]  Another aspect of German political movement names, foreign to the American way of naming, is its hospitality to Mundarten.  Thus, consider the following headlines from earlier this morning:

"Arsch huh" gegen rechte Gewalt - Künstler demonstrieren in Köln

http://www.rp-online.de/nrw/staedte/koeln/arsch-huh-gegen-rechte-gewalt-kuenstler-demonstrieren-in-koeln-aid-1.4738699

„Arsch huh“-Demo: Mit Karnevalisten und dem 1. FC Köln gegen Rechts

http://www.ksta.de/innenstadt/-arsch-huh--demo-mit-karnevalisten-und-dem-1--fc-koeln-gegen-rechts,15187556,29314086.html?piano_d=1

Um… say what?  They never taught us that in German class..

It’s the name of an anti-rightist movement in Cologne:  in full “Arsch huh, Zäng ussenander”; which, de.wikipedia  helpfully explains, is “Kölsch für Arsch hoch, Zähne auseinander”.   Umm … ‘Butt up, teeth apart’??  -- I still don’t get it.

The “rp” in rp-online stands for “Ripuarisch”, a northern dialect of German.  And indeed, Ripuarian has its own Wikipedia -- ksh.wikipedia.org  (“ksh” for “Kölsch”, after the principle regional city).   They explain:

Unger dämm Motto „Arsch huh, Zäng ussenander!“ hann sich em Johr 1992 kölsche Musikjruppe un Schauspiller, un e paa andere Künßler zesamme jeschlosse, öm jäje Fremdefeindlichkeit un Antisemitismus ze demonstriere.

The American language shows nothing comparable to such Mundarten.  Sure, Bostonians say “pahk the cah in Hahvahd yahd” -- but they don’t have their own Wikipedia.

Factoid:   Continuing with our amusement at the proliferation of umlauts (which in the case of the icecream-company and the rock-band  are completely meaningless), let us note that one of the main backers of “Arsch huh”  is a Kölner rock-band called
“Bläck Fööss “ -- which means, however, ‘bare feet’.

And, another gnarly political acronym:   Gröfaz

~

Weiteres in re Confoederatio Helvetica :

http://worldofdrjustice.blogspot.com/2014/05/bank-robbery.html