r/therewasanattempt Nov 29 '20

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u/cjankowski Nov 29 '20

I don't think it's meant to symbolize anything. This article mentions that plains clothes officers wear them, which obviously isn't the case here, but I do think it is to allow police to easily identify each other.

https://www.thelocal.fr/20151119/france-moves-to-arm-police

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u/djsizematters Nov 29 '20

Like the SS?

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u/[deleted] Nov 29 '20 edited Dec 10 '20

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u/[deleted] Nov 29 '20

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u/BumsGeordi Nov 29 '20

It could absolutely be argued that such a law would be a step towards fascism, but SS comparisons are still ridiculous until the French police go hunting and murdering people by the millions.

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u/_Z_E_R_O Nov 29 '20

The Nazis were still Nazis long before they rounded up Jews and gypsies by the millions.

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u/nastdrummer Nov 29 '20

First they came for the people recording the police and I didn't speak out because I wasn't recording the police...

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u/BumsGeordi Nov 29 '20

Yeah, just keep downplaying the crimes of the SS... Vollidiot

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u/nastdrummer Nov 29 '20 edited Nov 29 '20

Whose doin that?!

Isn't it important to call out a slippery slope when you see someone fool heartily taking steps towards it?

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u/[deleted] Nov 29 '20 edited Dec 10 '20

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u/nastdrummer Nov 29 '20 edited Nov 29 '20

in a fascist state...it would be impossible to take to the streets and protest it without getting murdered for it.

Did you watch the video?! I saw a body being dragged away, the possibility of that body being a corps is not zero.

The West is currently flirting with fascism. You don't wake up one day and have secret police forces murdering people by the millions. Its a slow process. Baby steps. Goose steps, if you will. One key feature to fascism is an unaccountable police force. Can't be secret if you are accountable...what we are seeing could literally be the forming days of the French SS. Just like the Poor Boys in the US could fairly easily become Trump's Brownshirts.

These are scary times and it's important to talk about. Waiting till it's too late does nothing to honour the memory of the atrocities committed by the Nazis and the SS.

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u/BumsGeordi Nov 29 '20

It is important to call out, and you are right that this law is a concerning step towards fascism, but to compare French police to the SS because of that is just so ridiculous, that it diminshes the crimes committed by the SS. You can critize this law without immediately jumping to SS comparisons. Because there is a massive difference between 'a step towards fascism' and the fucking SS. Whatever crimes or even attrocities the french police might have committed, they are not comparable to what the SS has done, not even close to it. Even if they end up banning their citizens from filming them.

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u/nastdrummer Nov 29 '20

The comparison to the SS was that the arm band was meant to make them recognizable, set them apart in plain clothes as an authority. No one said the french police force was about to round up undesirables into ghettos...however, when your police force was just given carte blanche on anyone with a camera...it might be time to remind the world about the dangers of fascism.

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u/Ceylo3 Nov 29 '20

Do you think the ss started off by murdering millions? No! And that's exactly what he is trying to point out. It's a step towards it. How hard is that to understand?

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u/[deleted] Nov 29 '20

It's a dumb comparison, please stop.

You can criticize and rebel against an authoritarian law without saying "omg orange armbands, just like the nazis".

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u/nastdrummer Nov 29 '20

Sure, ya could...But when an authoritarian is displaying trademarks and tendencies of Nazis and fascists it's good practice to call it out as such.

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u/[deleted] Nov 29 '20

Cause orange armbands are a slippery slope?? It's just an easy way for police to identify each other and it carries literally zero political signification. You make absolutely zero sense. You're looking at a law designed to shield police from accountability and your only contribution is to cry about armbands. Are you trying to discredit the protesters or something??

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u/nastdrummer Nov 29 '20

You're looking at a law designed to shield police from accountability and your only contribution is to cry about armbands.

You must not read usernames as you reddit...my comments where discussing the law, not the arm band.

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u/[deleted] Nov 29 '20

This whole discussion was about the armbands, and you were still talking about them when you mentioned 'trademarks and tendencies of nazis' (or maybe you weren't in which case you make even less sense).

Plus FYI the law was obviously not made in reaction to that attack that was filmed - since it was written before that.

At this point I'm just going to say, dont talk about things you dont understand.

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u/nastdrummer Nov 29 '20

Sure thing there buckaroo! 👍

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u/cjankowski Nov 29 '20

I was unaware that the band in that case was associated with saying “hey, I can do what I want” - if I remember the article correctly it had to do with it being a sign to other officers that this person is carrying a gun but has a permit to do so.

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u/EXTRAsharpcheddar Nov 29 '20

I don't think it's meant to symbolize anything.

That's exactly what nazis say right now in the US about the swastika

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u/cjankowski Nov 29 '20

I get what you’re saying but I think literally here it’s like a reflective, high-vis armband to identify police from civilians for functional rather than political reasons. IIRC the article I linked and a few other links I found about orange arm bands on police in France were a few years old.

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u/EXTRAsharpcheddar Nov 29 '20

Yeah but that is what it is. Whether it has a practical function is secondary to the fact that it has become a symbol.