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Post by lagatta on Oct 22, 2014 15:54:20 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Oct 22, 2014 16:28:47 GMT
These are definitely troubled times. Even though they often look silly, I imagine that the groups of 3 soldiers patrolling all over Paris (and much of France) at all times for the last 19 years do indeed act as a déterrent to people with a "project."
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Post by mich64 on Oct 22, 2014 17:18:17 GMT
Rather frightening, my brother-in-law is a member of the Canadian Armed Forces and is in lockdown at the Military Head Quarters in downtown Ottawa. My nephew is in lockdown at his school in Ottawa. My niece had just got on a city bus when her University went into lockdown and the bus drove right past this whole situation. He had been transferred to Head Quarter in Ottawa this summer. I have talked with my sister this afternoon and she is very concerned for her husband but has spoken to him. She told me some measures that have to take place in the next few hours.
The have just reported that the Serviceman shot at the War Memorial has died. So very sad.
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Post by lagatta on Oct 22, 2014 18:48:44 GMT
Yes, I have relatives in Gatineau and Ottawa as well. One of my cousins who would have been working right there is on a sabbatical leave this year, and is at home (in Gatineau) right now.
A big snafu as well - the death of the soldier on ceremonial guard duty (which is normally very safe) was reported before his next of kin were informed. It seems the Cabinet Minister may have made the mistake.
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Post by htmb on Oct 22, 2014 19:15:09 GMT
I'm so sorry to hear this news. Very sad.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 22, 2014 19:59:58 GMT
Already the political vibrations are felt.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 22, 2014 22:17:31 GMT
France has the unfortunate honour of being the Western country providing the greatest number of home grown Islamic fighters for the current situation in Iraq and Syria. However, converts and ethnic jihadists are cropping up everywhere and need to be watched at all times. It is rather ironic how much we protested against things like Chinese or Cambodian or Cuban "re-education" of people with "incorrect" political or religious philosophy 30 or 40 or 50 years ago and now we are hearing more and more about how it needs to be done with people who have gone astray in our own countries. I just wish I knew how all of this is going to turn out in the end.
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Post by lagatta on Oct 22, 2014 22:59:32 GMT
Both of the "killers" were screwed up young men, one had a father from Libya, I believe (but who ran a nightclub, which is most haram) but his mum was local and probably of Catholic origin - the other a pure francophone Québécois. Both arrested for petty crimes, many times, involving drugs and drink. Not things hardline Islamists would approve of.
Kerouac, I believe secular Tunisia is the Arabo-Muslim country with the same unenviable record. Young men. Perhaps resentful of the young women who are doing so well in their studies, and pissing them off with their relative success and independence? Perhaps a lot of this crap is simple violence and thuggery?
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Post by patricklondon on Oct 23, 2014 7:16:53 GMT
It's not unknown for people who lead chaotic lives and know only violence and petty crimes to make them feel important to turn to some sort of all-encompassing ideology that makes that sort of behaviour into a virtue and gives it some sort of twisted system that makes them important and part of some sort of cause other than their own self-assertion. Any totalitarian dictatorship has had its paramilitaries, shock troops and torturers - and where were they recruited from? My blog | My photos | My video clips"too literate to be spam" |
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Post by lagatta on Oct 23, 2014 12:37:30 GMT
The Ottawa shooter was acting alone, as far as anyone can tell. His mother is a senior civil servant, and was utterly in despair about her son, but that was because of his repeat criminality and his drug and drink problems. In that respect, he reminds me a lot of the guy in Toulouse who killed pupils at a Jewish school ... and a couple of soldiers, one Black, one Maghrebi if I recall. Here is an interview (in English) with my MP, Alexandre Boulerice. I know him a bit from involvement in community issues. His English is quite good; I'd heard a similar interview with Boulerice in French on Radio-Canada (though I had a rush job to do, and couldn't concentrate on it), and he did another on the English public broadcaster, CBC. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/ottawa-shooting-mp-alexandre-boulerice-describes-frightening-lockdown-1.2809447 |
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