Police Presence

It has been interesting seeing the police presence in the various cities we have been in.

In Brunei at the airport there was quite a presence by police. We were in the departure lounge having gone through security when an incident happened that brought the police presence to light. There was no toilet in the departure lounge so if you wanted to go you had to register your desire with those at the desk, and then be allowed back out to the toilets at the airport. This lady must have had a rough lunch because she went in and out a few times. She was on her way out and a senior policeman shouted at her, “Wait! No! Not again... you have been out lots! What are you up to?” He did not do this quietly, but loudly, waving his finger at her and demanding to see her passport. He had several strong loud altercations with her. There was no drawing her aside and talking gently to her, it was quite an aggressive interaction..

In Poland we did not see much of the police. We were visiting the castle at Krakow and going through an archway when two armed police turned the corner and walked directly toward us. We were walking against the wall and we would have had to change to single file to avoid them. It must be my childhood angst against authority, but I consciously decided I had a right to keep walking the line I was walking. The policemen kept coming. I nonchalantly looked at the scenery then as we got closer eyeballed the one in line with me. At the last moment he stepped behind his mate. I said to my son who was walking behind, “That policeman wasn’t going to move was he?” My wiser son said, “He’s got the gun dad! He’s got the gun.” On every train trip we took in Poland, several police personnel passed through the train - guns, batons, radios and handcuffs all hanging off them. On the train from Poland to Czech we did hear a man getting told off in a compartment down from ours. I think he had a domestic with his wife and the police intervened.

At Prague railway station there were heaps of police, all in riot type gear. We thought some incident might have happened but there did not seem much urgency. In the streets they were always present in big numbers. They walked the footpaths or sat in their vans at strategic points. They had a fancy wee three wheeled motor bike for getting around on quickly. We learned that there were national police and city police. They all carried guns.

In Berlin there did not seem to be a great police presence, except a guard outside some embassies. At the flash big railway station there were about three pairs of policemen who mostly gave people directions to parts of the station, again they were armed.

Walking miles around Amsterdam we only saw two police officers, appropriately riding push bikes, again armed.

As we alighted the train in Paris we saw a big bunch of police officers almost blocking the platform. I thought at first they were stopping people randomly, but then I realised they seemed to be after young blond women. (like a lot of young men, I guess) They were pulling these aside, checking passports and questioning them. Having grey hair we went by and continued into the Gare de Nord. As we went past a stall we encounter three french soldiers. They were in a triangular formation with machine guns at the ready marching through the station looking very intense. The front two were very young and they wear these oversized funny looking berets. I said to my wife, “Good grief! School Cadets!” She was busy telling me to “Shsh!” We saw a similar three-soldier formation of soldiers at the Louvre, at the Eiffel Tower and again today at the railway station. We were at a war memorial place overlooking the Eiffel tower in the bus and saw three van loads of police turn up. Returning there on foot the next day I was watching about a dozen hawkers with little blankets on the ground trying to sell little “Eiffel tower” trinkets. As I was looking at them and their attempts to pressure the visiting public, suddenly they all started to fold up their blankets. What had happened to cause this evacuation? I looked behind me and there was a policewoman standing looking at them with a grin. They all packed up and shuffled around the corner until she left. I suspect the police the day before had been there to deal with these hawkers, who can be very pushy.

As we left the St Pancrass, London station today we walked behind two English Bobbies. It felt like NZ, they had no guns and seemed a friendly part of the crowd. I even saw one with the old style police helmet on. It was refreshing.

Photos:

* The fancy bike Police in Prague have.

* Just some of the police at Prague Station when we arrived. They heard Jean was coming.