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It's really no wonder, John. I think that the city police (Police
Municipale) are afraid to do anything,
so as not to get caught in the racist
mode, so a lot of times they do nothing. Most of the time people prefer to
call
the Gendarmerie; they appear to trust the military more than the local
police. At least that's the way it is around here.
We rarely see the local
police (there are only about 5 or 6 total, a couple of women and the rest
men), and they are
rarely calledwhen serious problems happen.
Joanne
On 6/7/07, John LR Nelson <john.lr.nelson@ gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Rather a scathing question I know. Yesterday afternoon we went to our
> local Netto to do
some shopping. On the crest of a small hill across
> some fields opposite we spotted a gypsy emcampment. Makes a change,
last
> year they camped in the Netto car park!
>
> Anyway - as we were finishing our shopping, we heard
a lot of shouting
> from a pack of kids/young adolescents entering the store. They were not
> speaking in French,
but in Romain (we've got used to hearing it). They
> ran riot in the store, and as there were few staff nothing much
could be
> done. Some of the kids kept going backwards and forwards to the check
> out, just as we were toying
with the idea of going ourselves. Then as we
> started to go and load out groceries onto the conveyor belt we noticed
>
there was a woman Police Municipale officer ahead of us. Meanwhile a
> queue had formed behind us, and the young gypsy
kids pushed in front to
> be served before us - admittedly they did ask, but in such a way as they
> were going
to push in front anyway. Meanwhile three gypsy lads walked up
> to a young girl shopworker - loading shelves with kitchen
towel rolls
> from a palette. One of them sat on the palette of rolls and started to
> harrass her. It seemed
they were asking where something was so she tried
> to direct them to what they were looking for.
>
> What
did the officer of law and order do about the situation? Nothing...
> She walked out of the shop after making a purchase.
>
>
We felt sorry for the cashier, as she took the brunt of the harrassment
> - and couldn't leave her till because of having
to stay with her cash
> tray.
>
> It's no wonder the travellers get a bad name if they walking into
>
establishments and behave like this. I already mentioned a similar
> incident in a McDonalds a few weeks ago on another expat group. There
>
they played in the restaurant/toilets - getting water and wet tissues
> everywhere until the Manager of the restaurant
gave them a bag of food
> to get rid of them.
>
> John.
> --
> John NELSON
>
Traducteur / Translator - FR -> GB
> http://www.essonnei
mage.co.uk
> 0033 (0)6 37 33 60 61
> 0044 (0)141 416 0638
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