Football and terror

The sporting reputation of France on the eve of the Summer Olympics was pretty tarnished.

The Champions League final turned out to be a failure on all counts.

The ongoing internal investigation on the topic “Who is to blame and what went wrong” is another confirmation of this.

The French were not ready to host an important sporting event, even though they had about three months to prepare for a single match!

There was not enough time - such a response from the authorities was considered an empty excuse.

On the one hand, it was strange to see such discord: this is not the first time the French have hosted international football matches.

On the other hand, the actions of the police are absolutely clear to those who live in France.

For quite a long time, the law enforcement officers were given a clear setting - a minimum of contact, a maximum of effect.

They endlessly practice this tactic at regular demonstrations, which, with the same enviable regularity, end in riots.

Well, in what, in what, and in this the French police stuffed their hand.

You see the crowd - drive it to hell.

How?

Tear gas.

Habitual, routine, everyday.

Where it is impossible to spray gas, for example, in a crush at the turnstile, you can use a spray can - right in the face, if someone shouted something offensive at you or just got tired: it is an eyesore with its impatience and demands.

Are you the press?

So what?

Rubbing in the crowd, and even taking pictures, means the same legitimate target for the police.

At least when she tries to cut the crowd into smaller groups, cutting the way with screams and blows of clubs from left to right.

Here, if you didn’t have time to jump back or trampled, then it’s your own fault.

Even if you are all pasted over with the inscriptions "Press".

They also have stun grenades and rubber bullets in their arsenal.

In general, it is better not to get into the thick: with gouged out eyes and torn brushes, then you will walk, and not them.

Another important point is that the French police are very tired and annoyed.

In recent years, they have been greatly exhausted by the “yellow vests”, the threat of terrorist attacks, attacks, even the hunt for those who go home after work without uniforms and weapons, and the disgusting treatment of them in bad areas that have bred like mushrooms in France.

Among the police, there is a high suicide rate and some despair, because even the president at the end of 2020 allowed himself unflattering remarks about them, accusing them of systematic violence and racism.

The unions then staged a boycott and went on strike.

So why the cops behaved like that is understandable, they referred to a large number of suburban punks who act like a red rag on them.

But orders one way or another were given by the authorities.

And all this action at the stadium was led by the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Gerald Darmanin, who (one of the few) retained his portfolio in the new cabinet of ministers.

He will now answer to a specially created commission.

He had to give a press conference and make excuses that there were fake tickets (about 2,500 pieces), that people climbed over the fence, that they had to react somehow.

In general, he promised to think about

what could have been done better.

But then he was hit in the stomach again.

Attentive users saw in the stream of different videos from the stadium how two very popular bloggers in France, who are now called influencers, crawl under the turnstiles without a ticket and the security does not stop them - on the contrary, they kiss, take pictures.

It would seem that there is such a thing?

And the fact that just a few days before that one of them, a certain Monsieur Ibrahim, fired from a Kalashnikov assault rifle ... in Syria (at least in his video it is claimed that this is Syria)!

In the same place, his friend Ryan, who until recently worked at a school (!), Had fun shooting from a grenade launcher to the cackling, neighing and joyful cries.

Allegedly, they were later detained by the Syrian military, interrogated for a long time and released in peace to Lebanon, from where they safely returned to France.

The story itself is rather murky, because it's hard to imagine that in a country that has been at war for so many years, two European tourists with Arab roots can have fun firing all the guns for TikTok rollers.

Well, OK.

Let's say.

The French were shocked that, upon returning, they were able to enter the 80,000-seat stadium without any control and interest from the services.

So adherents of ISIS * can safely ride, it turns out?

If you look at their other videos, there is a whole bunch of abominations.

The same Ryan in October 2021, filming himself on camera for his 175,000 subscribers, robbed a fire truck, shouting that the firefighters are s *** us children.

He was sent to civic education courses.

After that, he recorded a video where he insulted the then secular Minister of Education Blanker and threatened him with a gun in his hands.

But the blogger was acquitted.

In March, he forced a disabled child on camera to say that Allah is great.

He was again sentenced to 105 hours of community service.

And now he went to shoot from a grenade launcher in Syria ... and then to football - after all, this is the Champions League final.

After such an Internet resonance, the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs asked the prosecutor's office to look into this issue.

But it is necessary to deal (and for a long time, seriously and comprehensively) with the suburbs - the heads and minds of young people living in closed areas.

And also - a crowd of migrants, a hundred thousand of whom (according to the most conservative estimates), after being ordered to leave France, remain to live in it, barely making ends meet or getting into criminal circles.

In Marseille every week someone is killed with a machine gun or a pistol.

Somewhere they attack people with a knife.

Everyone is so used to it that they are no longer reported at all: such stories have moved into the plane of the usual routine, banal news.

And the bells keep ringing.

Even the same incident at the Louvre, when a young guy dressed as a grandmother in a wheelchair was able to drive up to the Mona Lisa.

Think you dropped the cake!

But when they checked his ticket, nothing bothered them?

As one French friend told me, what if some intruder decided to dress up as a granny, taking a weapon with him to the Louvre?

In his opinion, the guards have become too relaxed, and in theory they may also want to take advantage of this.

But this is one person, and when the crowd?

On the same weekend as the league final, the French First League match took place.

After a penalty shoot-out, the Saint-Étienne team flew out of it.

The fans poured onto the field, in fact, even before the official end of the game, they began to throw flares, rush between the players.

They trampled everyone, the stadium is covered in smoke.

It was impossible to stop it, because again they were not prepared.

In fan groups, such an action was discussed.

On the eve of the Olympic Games, a lot of attention is paid to the beautification of the territory, the possible closure of the Champs Elysees for the passage of cars (they want to make a pedestrian zone there), the creation of bicycle paths, the restoration of Notre Dame.

By the way, this is also funny.

The Spanish journalist, before the ill-fated finale for the French, went live from the cathedral.

I wanted to show the repair and beauty, and then I started squealing and jumping, because a rat crawled out of the bushes.

And the attention of the operator, the studio and the audience could no longer be torn off from this rat.

Not the best presentation of Paris against the backdrop of Notre Dame Cathedral.

But urban repairs, which are endlessly scolded by motorists, traffic jams, rats, are all secondary.

The main thing in such big international competitions is organization and safety.

Problems with the last point have been accumulating for a long time, they have not gone away, although they have been pushed a little by COVID-19, elections and a special operation.

In the conditions of rising prices for everything and a decrease in the standard of living, it is not worth expecting an improvement in the mental state of individual individuals.

The police need to be vigilant more than ever.

Is she strong enough to do so?

And then, who will be responsible for everything?

Enumerating all the latest mistakes and a snowball of problems, the opposition is now demanding the resignation of the current interior minister.

However, before the parliamentary elections scheduled for mid-June, his departure should not be expected.

And then he, too, is unlikely to take such a step.

It remains to be hoped that he will draw the right conclusions and ensure the safety of athletes and spectators of the Olympic Games in the summer of 2024.

* "Islamic State" (ISIS, ISIL) - the organization was recognized as a terrorist organization by the decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation of December 29, 2014.

The point of view of the author may not coincide with the position of the editors.