26 October, 2006 | Leave a Comment

If you’ve ever been to Paris, then you probably noticed rather quickly that this city has a very overt police presence. The police in Paris are very militaristic in appearance; they often look as if they’re ready for urban warfare. Even members of the military can be seen patrolling famous monuments and train stations while carrying machine guns. The first few times you see this it’s a bit jarring.

It’s not uncommon to see swarms of police on the streets. I’ve witnessed this on numerous occasions, most recently last Saturday in the Place de la Bastille. On every occasion, I’ve asked an onlooker what was happening, assuming there was some sort of disturbance. But my questions are always shrugged off and I’m told it’s simply a “manifestation” (a demonstration). In the Place de la République, near where I live, there are many of these “manifestations.” I’ve seen the streets lined with police vans (one time there were at least 25 of them) and they’re filled with police. Sometimes they just sit in the vans, eating take-away food while holding their guns in their laps. Just from my observations, the police force here appears to be more racially diverse than I would have expected, but overwhelmingly male. Ironically, the nouns police and gendarmerie are both feminine.

You can click below to see a few photos I took during the “manifestation” in the Place de la Bastille. These are among the most viewed photos I’ve uploaded to Flickr, though I have no idea why. I know a few women reading this blog have a “hot cop” fetish, but that is not me. As a feminist, I do not find authoritarianism and machismo to be sexually alluring. Yes, I do have a file on my hard-drive called Photos/Paris/Cops, but that is just for sociological purposes.

Here’s a close-up view of the kind of weapons the police I saw last Saturday were carrying. The average cop on the street isn’t armed to this exent:

And here’s a drug bust I stumbled upon in a nearby park:

[tags]Paris, police, gendarmerie[/tags]

1. Comments RSS

1. Lillie Says:

   October 26th, 2006 at 4:59 pm

   They look more like boy scouts with weapons..

2. Vol Abroad Says:

   October 27th, 2006 at 9:35 am

   I nearly got my camera took up when I was in Paris in April for taking pics like these. I got quite a serious finger wagging from one of these guys.

   Now, I got me a camera with a better zoom.

3. Anglofille Says:

   October 27th, 2006 at 12:49 pm

   I wondered if it was okay to take photos like these, but I was standing right in front of them and to be honest, they seemed to be enjoying the attention. Still, I’ll be more careful in the future, just in case.