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I love these diaries, Alex.  Thanks for being our intrepid correspondent!

The movies are taking a helluva long time to load on my anemic adsl connection, but the sounds are worth it.  I also especially like the people dancing in the last one.

About that police incident... I dunno a think about French law, but if the law truly just bans publishing photos without the subject's permission, it doesn't seem like he has any right to stop you from taking pictures.

But at least he was reasonably polite about intimidating you.  The Egyptian police (who wear exactly the same uniforms and riot gear, incidentally) would just smash your camera, and probably your head.  Sigh.

If it were me, I'd probably make a point of taking as many pictures of the police as possible, just on principle, but then I'd probably get my head smashed in, so best not to listen to me....

by the stormy present (stormypresent aaaaaaat gmail etc) on Tue Apr 4th, 2006 at 03:34:42 PM EST
dur... should be I don't know a thing about French law...
by the stormy present (stormypresent aaaaaaat gmail etc) on Tue Apr 4th, 2006 at 03:36:01 PM EST
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Thanks!!

About the dancing part, somehow the sound doesn't seem as loud in the movie files. In real it was much much louder.

by Alex in Toulouse on Tue Apr 4th, 2006 at 04:38:07 PM EST
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I got grabbed by a CRS after filming a guy getting dragged away behind police lines, and he told me to delete the video. First I pulled the American card, telling him I was a tourist so what did it matter, but he persisted. Considering his firm grip on my shoulder and knowing that my french isn't good enough to argue him down, I deleted the video.. still regret not standing up for my rights more.

Moral of the story: way to get out of it.

by SplishSplash (dbcass@gmail.com) on Thu Apr 6th, 2006 at 12:46:39 PM EST
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Sorry about the video!

Since I couldn't remember who you were (or maybe seeing you around), I went to see your info and from there proceeded on to the blog that your info links to. I read David Cass' (is that you, or your friend?) entry on being beaten up by youths, and I've got to say I'm sorry about this bad experience, I sympathise with his/your anger (I've been gang-beaten once in my life before, and I can confirm that it isn't exactly a thrill), and am sorry about the camera, but I disagree with some or all of the conclusions a heated-up reaction seems to lead to. Indeed I find it manipulative to talk about youths beating up people for attention, when you have no more than a hundred violent youths in a crowd of 700,000 people in paris. That's about 0.01%. In Toulouse I have not yet seen any violence against demonstrators (or any violence at all, in fact, but there have been a few police charges against people trying to climb onto the balcony of Town Hall, which I wasn't around to see).

The CPE is a complex matter, and protesting against it must not be dismissed as an absurdity just because of a sour experience.

by Alex in Toulouse on Thu Apr 6th, 2006 at 04:11:07 PM EST
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