[Safe_Timber_Man]

I know I should just look this up but I'm getting conflicting answers on Google.

What's the difference between them and RAID. I remember RAID from back in 2012 Toulouse and Montauban shootings. At the time I thought they looked like a fucking formidable unit.

Are RAID 'higher up' so to speak and more of a specifically tactical counter-terrorism unit compared to CRS?

[Malcolm Armsteen]

Dunno.
I just know that when I see the CRS I walk on the other side of the road...

A bit like SWAT, crossed with Special Branch. Police organisations in France are arcane, organised at national and local levels, with odd sub-organisations which seem to have been formed ad hoc.

National police (the Gendarmerie) are military style, the local police are less so, and less 'disciplined'. It's a bit of a shock when you get pulled over for speeding and monsieur l'agent has a sub-machine gun held casually across his chest...

[Malcolm Armsteen]

It seems that the Colonel of the local Gendarmerie (possibly the CRS) volunteered himself for a hostage-swap, which the taker accepted. He then waited, his phone on, as the police rushed in and shot the terrorist very dead. The colonel was seriously injured and has been commended for his bravery.

The terrorist was apparently a local low-life, radicalised in prison. Known to the police but as a petty thief and drug dealer.

[Boiler]

Dunno.
I just know that when I see the CRS I walk on the other side of the road...

Not for nothing do they have the nickname of Car Rempli de Singes.... trust me though, you want scary, look at Brazilian coppers. Even the lowest level - the Policia Militar - are bloody scary.

[Safe_Timber_Man]

Even just standard Spanish police aren't to be messed with. More than once I've watched with amusement as a drunken Brit starts mouthing off at them only to be met with a very significant smack round the head. The look of utter shock on their face is hilarious..."you can't do that!!"...oh, they can!

[MisterMuncher]

Dunno.
I just know that when I see the CRS I walk on the other side of the road...

A bit like SWAT, crossed with Special Branch. Police organisations in France are arcane, organised at national and local levels, with odd sub-organisations which seem to have been formed ad hoc.

National police (the Gendarmerie) are military style, the local police are less so, and less 'disciplined'. It's a bit of a shock when you get pulled over for speeding and monsieur l'agent has a sub-machine gun held casually across his chest...

Yep. That's true. Conversely, I find the unarmed cops in GB, or the Gardaí a bit fluffy compared to the Glock 'n' MP5 toting RUC of old.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

I worked for a few years in Westminster, opposite New Scotland Yard. You got used to seeing Glocked-up Bobbies there.

[MisterMuncher]

Coming from NI in the 80's/90's it was always a bit weird dealing with Na Gardaí. Cops who didn't seem ready to kill ye was a novelty.

When I was a slip of a cub of 17, I went with the boys to a festival in Tipperary. Having driven the 8-hour drive with five pissed/pissing up people in the back of a Renault 21 Savannah had rather tried my patience, so I parked up on Thurles main street, let them out for a piss in a pub, sat myself in the back seat and cracked open a tin. I may also around this time have commenced construction of a jazz cigarette.

There's a tap at the window. I almost shit myself when I see the uniform outside. It's an immense culchie Gard, the sort of lad could knock seven bells out of eight men.

"Sorry there, young fella, you'll need to shift your yoke a up the road a yard or two, you're blocking an entry"
"Sorry, Sorry, Officer, it's just that I've had a beer, and I wouldn't dream of..."
"Ach, no bother, sure throw me the keys, I'll move it for ye"

"And for fuck sake, don't be smoking that on the street. Go into the park there, I definitely won't run after ye"

[spoonman]

Coming from NI in the 80's/90's it was always a bit weird dealing with Na Gardaí. Cops who didn't seem ready to kill ye was a novelty.

When I was a slip of a cub of 17, I went with the boys to a festival in Tipperary. Having driven the 8-hour drive with five pissed/pissing up people in the back of a Renault 21 Savannah had rather tried my patience, so I parked up on Thurles main street, let them out for a piss in a pub, sat myself in the back seat and cracked open a tin. I may also around this time have commenced construction of a jazz cigarette.

There's a tap at the window. I almost shit myself when I see the uniform outside. It's an immense culchie Gard, the sort of lad could knock seven bells out of eight men.

"Sorry there, young fella, you'll need to shift your yoke a up the road a yard or two, you're blocking an entry"
"Sorry, Sorry, Officer, it's just that I've had a beer, and I wouldn't dream of..."
"Ach, no bother, sure throw me the keys, I'll move it for ye"

"And for fuck sake, don't be smoking that on the street. Go into the park there, I definitely won't run after ye"

[Malcolm Armsteen]

A French police officer who swapped himself for a hostage in a supermarket siege on Friday has died, officials say.
Lt-Col Arnaud Beltrame, 45, "fell as a hero" and showed "exceptional courage", French President Emmanuel Macron said.

A sad outcome, but many lives saved, it seems.

[MisterMuncher]

Fair play, it was a seriously brave and selfless thing to do.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

Damn! I missed this!

Sunday was the day of the annual Pig Race in our commune. The pigs (all young porkers) raced 2 laps round the town centre, watched by 300 aficianados. In third place - "Marine"; in 2nd place "Sarkho". Excellent.

The winner was 'Columb' - the TV series Columbo is unaccountably popular here.



https://actu.fr/normandie/teilleul_5059 ... 08937.html

[MisterMuncher]

Unaccountably? It's fecking brilliant.

[Kreuzberger]

Who gets to stand on the chair and how/why? I reckon you'd be brilliant at that, Mister A.

[Boiler]

Love that. Just... love that