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Unarmed French police literally retreated in the face of Islamist attackers
Hotair ^ | 01/07/2015 | Noah Rothman

Posted on 01/07/2015 10:28:24 AM PST by SeekAndFind

The two French police officers, who both lost their lives in the effort to prevent the Charlie Hebdo attackers from executing their grim mission, are heroes. Their sacrifice in defense of their fellow citizens is beyond noble, and their bravery will be remembered in the coming days.

It is not a knock on Parisian police but French domestic policy to note and criticize the fact that the first responders who arrived at the scene on bicycles and without defensive weaponry were entirely unprepared to face an ongoing attack by murderous, AK-47-wieldling Islamist gunmen. The first police to arrive at the scene of the attack were forced to withdraw in the face of superior firepower.

The Guardian reported.

“We heard shouting in the street,” Benoît Bringer, who works at a press agency on the same floor as the magazine’s offices, told France Info radio. “We saw hooded men carrying Kalashnikovs entering the building. We called the police. After a few minutes we heard heavy firing – a lot of firing, a hell of a lot. We went upstairs to take shelter on the roof. Then after about 10 minutes we saw two armed men come out on to the street. There was more shouting, more firing.

“Three policemen had arrived on bikes but had to leave because the men were armed, obviously … Then the attackers took off in a car.”

Another, unnamed witness from an office across the corridor said she and her colleagues had heard “a huge boom”. “Then someone opened the door to our office and asked where Charlie Hebdo was. He had a rifle. We backed away. Afterwards he left, we heard gunfire. We went to the windows, there were two men running with guns, speaking in bad French … They were shouting outside, and shooting again. Afterwards I saw someone leaving the building with his hands covered in blood.” [Emphasis added]

It is speculative at this stage, but it is also relatively safe to assume that if those officers had been armed they would have had an opportunity to disable the attackers before they fled. As a result of the lack of preparedness on the part of the Parisian police, the three gunmen who killed 12 and wounded 11 more remain at large. Perhaps this atrocity will result in a review of Paris’s counter-terror planning ahead of the next terrorist incident. It is surely coming.

As an aside, the final paragraph of that block quote is interesting. All morning, cable news analysts in the United States have been assuring their audiences that the audio of the attackers indicates that the terrorists were locals. They spoke perfect French, the analysts asserted, and their accents did not indicate any foreign origin.

But the local Parisians who recalled hearing the attackers speak “bad French” suggests otherwise. Now, comments like these could be simple chauvinism. The majority Muslim areas of Paris are often sequestered from the rest of French society and might have developed their own French dialects (at least to the ear of the native Parisian). But this observation from a witness to this attack at least raises an element of doubt as to just how homegrown it truly was.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: france; guncontrol; gunfreezone; islam; islamists; paris; police
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To: SeekAndFind

I’m sure this incident will cause Obama to rethink Amnesty and to shut down the border immediately. /s


21 posted on 01/07/2015 10:40:17 AM PST by CivilWarBrewing
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To: SeekAndFind

Probably a fishing boat from Africa.


22 posted on 01/07/2015 10:40:18 AM PST by struggle
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To: DaveA37

I’m guessing they were Algerian.


23 posted on 01/07/2015 10:40:40 AM PST by struggle
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To: SeekAndFind
the first responders who arrived at the scene on bicycles and without defensive weaponry were entirely unprepared to face an ongoing attack by murderous, AK-47-wieldling Islamist gunmen.

 photo KeystoneKops_zpsbafd30ae.jpg
Il ya des problèmes à Charlie Hebdo

24 posted on 01/07/2015 10:41:04 AM PST by FatherofFive (Islam is evil and must be eradicated)
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To: SeekAndFind

No French Polize is complete without their white flags. That is their most important “weapon”.


25 posted on 01/07/2015 10:41:55 AM PST by Blue Highway
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To: kaehurowing

i support removing all muslims from european and north american countries.


26 posted on 01/07/2015 10:42:23 AM PST by Secret Agent Man (Gone Galt; Not averse to Going Bronson.)
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To: SeekAndFind

“They were asking for it” is slowly beginning to trend. Blame goes to “religious extremists”...you know, like Quakers.


27 posted on 01/07/2015 10:42:46 AM PST by AppyPappy (If you are not part of the solution, there is good money to be made prolonging the problem.)
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To: SeekAndFind
The first police to arrive at the scene of the attack were forced to withdraw in the face of superior firepower.

"Superior" implies that the officers had less capable guns. They are not allowed to carry guns at all. I can't blame the officers for withdrawing - but I can blame idiotic liberal policy.

28 posted on 01/07/2015 10:43:37 AM PST by kidd (What we have now is the federal gruberment)
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To: Responsibility2nd

“STOP! Stop or I’ll say STOP, again!”


29 posted on 01/07/2015 10:43:38 AM PST by Puppage (You may disagree with what I have to say, but I shall defend to your death my right to say it)
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To: MeshugeMikey

She looks ticked off, that is good.


30 posted on 01/07/2015 10:44:25 AM PST by Irenic (The pencil sharpener and Elmer's glue is put away-- we've lost the red wheelbarrow)
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To: SeekAndFind

Obama has been busy releasing terrorists. Every terrorist attack now belongs to the Democrat Party.


31 posted on 01/07/2015 10:44:40 AM PST by blueunicorn6 ("A crack shot and a good dancer")
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To: henkster

“Summary disposition.”


32 posted on 01/07/2015 10:45:42 AM PST by kaehurowing
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To: SeekAndFind

They believed the “This is a Gun Free Zone” sign in the lobby would protect them.


33 posted on 01/07/2015 10:46:25 AM PST by pabianice (LINE)
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To: SeekAndFind

Well, duh. It's not called Gay Pari for nothing.

34 posted on 01/07/2015 10:47:46 AM PST by Servant of the Cross (the Truth will set you free)
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To: SeekAndFind

Even armed police do this. Its happened here and the folks caught in the ‘war zone’ were on their own. The lesson is to be prepared.


35 posted on 01/07/2015 10:51:05 AM PST by 556x45
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To: Irenic

its a start.

eventually the French may actually come to grips with the mess they’ve gotten themselves into.


36 posted on 01/07/2015 10:51:41 AM PST by MeshugeMikey ("Never, Never, Never, Give Up," Winston Churchill ><>)
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To: SeekAndFind

I would never be a policeman...if they told me I will be unarmed.


37 posted on 01/07/2015 10:53:29 AM PST by Osage Orange (I have strong feelings about gun control. If there's a gun around, I want to be controlling it.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Clouseau: Were you expecting one? A beaum?

38 posted on 01/07/2015 10:55:15 AM PST by DannyTN
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To: kaehurowing

Venue transferred to a Higher Court.


39 posted on 01/07/2015 10:55:33 AM PST by henkster (Do I really need a sarcasm tag?)
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To: SeekAndFind

I keep thinking of Zell Miller’s “spiteball” remark when reading this story.

Prayers for everyone, in particular the cop who was just murdered in the coldest blood imaginable.


40 posted on 01/07/2015 10:56:01 AM PST by miss marmelstein (Richard the Third: Loyalty Binds Me)
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