Paris – Part 2

On my weekend get-a-way to Paris, our little group was walking along the outskirts of a very famous artists’ marketplace and we saw a young collage-age girl playing a musical instrument on the corner. She was a good looking white girl, dresses nicely and obviously trying to make a few Euros by playing music. A man was talking to her in a very serious voice and she looked quite distressed. Lindy’s friend, a French woman who has lived in Paris all her life said to me in a frustrated tone, “That man works for the government and is making her leave [because she doesn’t have a permit], they are such racists”. I was taken back by her racist comments as the woman and the undercover police officer were both white. She explained to me that the French police often target the respectable looking white people because “they don’t want any trouble”. That the ethnic minorities were aloud to get away with more because the police feared that if they tried to interfere there might be problems. I explained that this was somehow the opposite in the US, where police often target minorities because they perceive them a potential problems. I am still trying to figure out the sociological implications and reasoning behind the different police tactics, and it makes me wonder about other societies and how they deal with similar issues.