The Only Thing We Have To Fear
The first day at the Sciences Po Orientation, I (along with the other 750 exchange students) were ushered into a massive lecture hall (maybe the size of the Ell Hall auditorium) for the Welcome Cemermoney. On every seat, there was a bag with a pen and a Welcome Programme folders. I perused the folder and found: a campus map, information about services provided to exchange students, events for the week, and a series of documents concerning what to do if there is a terrorist attack! I was taken aback by how nonchalantly these documents were the interspersed amongst the others. The titles were quite alarming such as: HOW TO REACT IN CASE OF A TERRORIST ATTACK, HOW TO REACT TO A TERRORIST THREAT, and SAFETY INSTRUCTIONS AND USEFUL INFORMATION. Is there something that Sciences Po failed to tell me? My parents wanted me to do to France over the Middle East because of the assumption I would be safer, were they wrong in that assumption?
The open remarkets started with a greeting from the President of Sciences Po, Olivier Duhamel, followed by other head officials with their prewritten remarks. Then the head Sciences Po campus security came to give the exchange students a brief lecture on what to do if there is a terrorist attack. He assured us that there has never been a terrorist attack as Sciences Po but the school has in place the necessary precautions to keep all the students safe. To enter a Sciences Po building, Student ID cards must be shown to and examined by the guards at the front door of each building (e.g. if I needed to walk from one building to another to change classes I would need to show the guards my ID). As well, there are “safety points” around the campus where students should meet in case of emergencies.
This tangible fear of a terrorist attack can be felt across the city. By the entrance to the Luxembourg Gardens stand two men with bulletproof vests and larger guns. There are security guards at the entrance of al shops and public places. From what I see, they are primarily responsible for ensuring that questionable people and packages do not make it into the secured areas. I am told that this level of security is more common in Europe than what I am used to as an American especially after all of the terrorist attacks.When I see security guards, I tend to feel less safe. I wonder if the added security is actually keeping Paris safer or if it is posturing to make citizens and visitors feel better more secure. For example, when I was in the Apple Store, I had a brown paper package in my bag (I was on my way to the post office) which looked dubious at best. When the security officer asked me what this was, I told him that it was a mail particle I was going to send and then he let me through without any other questions. Also, when I walk through the doors at Sciences Po I flash my Student ID Card at the Security Guard but he does not thoroughly inspect the card to make sure that the person on the card is in fact me. Also when I enter Sciences Po, no one checks my bag to ensure I am not carrying a weapon. I do agree with the sentiment that it is infeasible for a university or store to do a comprehensive search of each person entering and exiting the premises, I wonder how much the ID checks and the bag checks really help.
Is Paris safe?
“Not only new terrorist attacks are possible but there’s a sentiment, this time shared by both intelligence agencies and political leaders, that there will be more [attacks]… Unfortunately, there will likely be attacks that they will fail to prevent,” says Charles Rault.
Paul Swallow adds, “I do think new attacks are likely. With the impending defeat in ISIS [Daesh] in Syria, their ‘soldiers’ will escape and may return home to many European countries, France included. It is highly likely some will wish to continue their struggle by attacking ‘soft’ civilian targets in these countries, following the Bataclan/Charlie Hebdo models.”
In light of the 2015 terrorist attacks, Anne Hidalgo announced 14 new measures starting in the year 2016.
- 30 more security agents will be recruited
- All agents will be issued bulletproof vests
- Films added to government vehicles to make the winds shatterproof
- 165 new security cameras
Heightened surveillance by the city authorities around daycare centers- Videophones and security airlocks will be installed in daycare centers and schools
- One-way reflective films will be applied to the windows of establishments
- New security protocol established at the city’s conservatoires
- Attack alert buttons will be installed in conservatoires and libraries
- Security airlocks and electric-locking doors in more isolated sporting facilities
- ‘Hackathon’ to developing new solutions for crisis management and public information in the event of an emergency
- New ‘Defence & Security’ platform will be established in one of the city’s businesses incubators
- Possibility of creating a database of 3D scans of the city’s major cultural sites and sporting facilities
- Parents with children in public daycare centers will receive real-time information, by text message, in the event of a crisis incident
The French Government self-reports that these (along with other new measures) have helped authorities break up twelve plotted attacks in 2017 alone and mass killings were prevented.
The new security measures are met with skepticism from those concerned with civil liberties and from terrorism experts who do not believe the policies go far enough.
Impact on Civil Liberties
The passage and expansion of police powers and states of emergency put a strain on the civil liberties. The new codes, to me, are reminiscent of McCarthyism and the Second Red Scare.
For example, CBCNew cities, “The authorities will be able to close places of worship if they are thought to incite violence. Critics say that targets mosques and Muslims.”
Also, the police can conduct “visits and searches” which mean a local police can search homes of persons with suspected terrorist links without a warrant. As well as stop, check the ID, and search people on the street who live within 20 kilometers of an international airport (i.e. most of Paris and minority suburbs).
These are a few of the many new laws. It is easy to see how these new powers handed to the government and the police can be used to target and integrate minority communities which is problematic (to say the least).
What will Keep Paris Safe?
Conversely, there is the legitimate criticism that says that argues these measures do not go far enough to keep Paris safe and Paris is largely vulnerable to terrorist attacks.
To keep France safe, Sputnik News reports that there would need to be:
- Reestablishing national borders
- Suspending sine die any entrance of more ‘migrants’
- Reconsideration of the principles of secularity (“laicite” in French) that hinder collection of the information about religious minorities and further analysis of the collected facts.
Still, these extreme changes would have little effect on stopping lone wolf terrorist attacks.
In My Humble Opinion
believe that the new security measures are effective and that the French authorities are working in the public interest to stop new terrorist attacks. On the other hand, I recognize the crimes against the new measures and I do question the ethics efficacy of the new security measures.
Overall, I am of the opinion that terrorist attacks do not pose a great threat to the people of France. For perspective, a person in France is 27 times more likely to die from a car accident that a terrorist attack, yet this static does not stop millions of people from getting into a car each day.
As Jos Ilagan provides an interesting analysis of the goals of a terrorist attack. He says, ” The goal is to pressure the government to impose draconian measures that would lead to the curtailment of civil liberties and constitutional rights of …[its] people.” In other words, the goal of a terrorist attack is to insight panic in a society.
Given the French response to the latest terrorist attacks, it seems as though the terrorist are getting the results for which they were hoping. Thus, I stand with President Franklin Roosevelt and believe: the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.
