When things go beyond limits...

@topffer (42156)
France
August 24, 2018 6:30am CST
There is actually a small movie festival in my city. A big one according to newspapers, but small for the public it gets. They are speaking of 35000 people having watched movies last year at this festival. As they sell cheap cards for 10 movies, it is 3500 of 4000 persons following it. There are a lot of exclusive previews with movie stars and directors, it would interest me if I had not to queue during hours for one movie. I did it a year, I will not renew that, but I have nothing against this festival by itself, except... Except that this year they are blocking all the old center for it. I needed to take my car yesterday and I realized that there were concrete blocks in the middle of the streets. I had received a sheet of paper in the mailbox showing a traffic plan during the festival, and I had not even looked at it, but I should have as it was not a traffic plan but a no traffic plan ! So I decided to take a train, as I had to be present to a meeting in a near city. The railway station is at 2 km from my home. I wanted to take a bus, and the first bus stop had a sign telling : «This bus stop is not deserved during the movie festival.» Alright, next one. Same. On the loudspeakers in the streets, I heard a movie director speaking of the creative energy needed to adapt a book. I could have spoken to him of the energy needed to walk during this festival when you have not a limo waiting for you and authorized to go in these deserted streets, less creative, but real. Next. Same. Etc, the first bus stop to be deserved was at the railway station itself. Alright, I had missed a train for 2 mn late at the station, thanks, I had to wait for the next one 1 hour later... But there was a compensation, I walked on the red carpet put at the entrance, although I wonder why this red carpet was blue ??? I came back at 7 pm, surfing between the cement blocks to reach my home, and being stopped twice by security guards asking me to open my bag. I have usually nothing against opening my bag, but there are some limits : I was not at the entrance of a private place/building but in the streets where I have the right to move freely, and in a street only a policeman can ask to open a bag, not a guy with a black suit, a black tie and a bluetooth headset looking like a caretaker or a secret agent. And there was a square blocked to screen a movie. I did not discussed though, or I would have probably spent the night outdoors. So the center of a city has been privatized for a festival followed by 3 or 4000 people... I will remember that when I will have to vote to elect a mayor in 2020. I do not know if the mayor follows it, but he should fully enjoy to drink champagne with movie stars, it may not last long.
10 people like this
10 responses
@LadyDuck (458091)
• Switzerland
24 Aug 18
This is why every year during the week of the "Grand Prix", we decided to quit Monte-Carlo and go somewhere else. The roads were closed, the car "blocked" in the garage and when you forgot the "essais" schedule you were blocked inside the supermarket waiting that they opened the circuit to go back home.
2 people like this
@LadyDuck (458091)
• Switzerland
24 Aug 18
@MALUSE The tourists attractions are interesting "only" for tourists. In Monte-Carlo they started the "unofficial" Formula 1 tests at 5 in the morning, the whole apartment was shaken when all the cars started their motors.
2 people like this
@MALUSE (69413)
• Germany
24 Aug 18
@LadyDuck I can imagine that it was horrible. And all the fumes you breathe in.
3 people like this
@MALUSE (69413)
• Germany
24 Aug 18
That is why every year many inhabitants of the cities in the Rhineland (Cologne, Düsseldor, Mainz, etc.) where Carnival is celebrated defect for some days. Although it's still February and no tourist season, they prefer going to the North Sea and staring at the grey water to remaining among the Carnival fools.
3 people like this
@YrNemo (20261)
24 Aug 18
An amusing post! I could feel your bitterness there . By the way, what did you do when they wanted to check your bag? Did you read the laws to them?
1 person likes this
@topffer (42156)
• France
24 Aug 18
I was tempted to ask them to call a policeman to check my bag, but there was no policeman around, and it could have taken a lot of time. I opened the bag and they had a look in it without putting the hands. I am sure they know they are not allowed to do it, and they would perhaps not have insisted if I had said "No"... Or I would have spent the night in the streets waiting that they leave to reach my bed.
1 person likes this
@topffer (42156)
• France
25 Aug 18
@YrNemo Exactly, it is useless to get into troubles in a situation like this one. That I had protested or not would not have removed these guys from the streets, and they just do what they have been ordered to do.
1 person likes this
@YrNemo (20261)
25 Aug 18
@topffer I know your feeling. Happen often here (not that sort of things of course, but similar re: the law says something else, the whoever does something else completely). In situations like that, we just have to let things go or the delays would be worse.
1 person likes this
@much2say (53959)
• Los Angeles, California
7 Sep 18
They will do that in and around L.A. for some various big events - but in most cases we know about it (and the traffic that goes along with it), so we avoid those areas during that time. However those kinds of events are still relatively far from us - you live close to that festival site and have to deal with what comes with street closures! So you were stopped in the street to open your bag? We're used to having to open our bags up everywhere - but usually it is at some entrance where there are tables set up for this - not randomly in the street - strange - but who are we to argue when they ask, right?
1 person likes this
@topffer (42156)
• France
7 Sep 18
Only a policeman can ask to open a bag in a street, I was tempted to ask them to call a policeman, but I would have lost a lot of time, so I opened the bag. There are again several streets closed next weekend. I have decided to go elsewhere.
• United States
28 Aug 18
Wow, that sounds like a nightmare. I am in a small town, so the only place where I have to be careful (I have tiny scissors I use for sewing or taking tags off, but could be viewed as a weapon) is the courthouse. Searching through my things is another reason I wouldn't fly today, not that it is important, but the fact that it has to be done just in case makes me wary of most public traveling.
1 person likes this
@topffer (42156)
• France
28 Aug 18
The bags are checked in many public buildings, like museums, theaters, courthouses. Most of the time they just have a look and do not check, and it is useless, but it is legal. What is not legal for a security agent is to ask to check a bag in a street in France...
1 person likes this
@topffer (42156)
• France
28 Aug 18
@Carmelanirel2 We are supposed to be at a level of high security supposed to not last, but it lasts since 2014.
1 person likes this
• United States
28 Aug 18
@topffer Wow, it is much stricter there than it is here. As far as I know, only courthouses and airports are concerns for searching.
1 person likes this
@JESSY3236 (18923)
• United States
24 Aug 18
That's cool though. But yes probably a mess to get home.
1 person likes this
@topffer (42156)
• France
24 Aug 18
I followed it 1 year, and it was not that cool, because of the queues. It is probably very cool for actors invited here, but not for basic citizens.
1 person likes this
@MACQUUNE (513)
• Lagos, Nigeria
24 Aug 18
How long it is gonna last?,a day, week or whatever.
1 person likes this
@topffer (42156)
• France
24 Aug 18
Quite a week, it ends on Sunday. What is interesting is that they cannot even collect the garbage because of the blocks
@MACQUUNE (513)
• Lagos, Nigeria
24 Aug 18
1 person likes this
@marguicha (215428)
• Chile
24 Aug 18
I suppose that the mayor is worried by a terrorist attack. Only I think that fear of terrorism can be as terrible as terrorism itself.
1 person likes this
@topffer (42156)
• France
24 Aug 18
The mayor, maybe, but if he wanted to have bags controlled in the streets he should have asked the préfet to have it done by the state police. A security agent is not allowed to do it, except at the entrance of private buildings in France. If I had protested, I suppose they would have forbidden to me to go to my home, until a state policeman had controlled my bag... If we do not protest about that, we are at risk to have private militias in the streets soon.
@MALUSE (69413)
• Germany
24 Aug 18
How do your neighbours react? They are in the same position as you. You can organise a manifestation to annoy the mayor.
1 person likes this
@topffer (42156)
• France
24 Aug 18
Many shopkeepers are angry, and their angriness is often communicative. Anyways there are many decades that this city has not elected the same mayor twice. I heard that the previous one went from door to door to introduce himself during his campaign, and cried and got a depression when he realized that he was not elected again. This one has perhaps no hope, which would be bad for us during his last year.
@JohnRoberts (109857)
• Los Angeles, California
24 Aug 18
Your bag was searched because this was a public event with a large gathering thus a potential terrorist target.
1 person likes this
@topffer (42156)
• France
24 Aug 18
Yes, but it was illegal to have it searched by a security guard, and even by a city policeman, only the state police and the gendarmerie can do that in a street in France, or it would leave a door opened at any militia. I am sure that state policemen have already complained.
1 person likes this
@banksim (5203)
24 Aug 18
ok enjoy movie featival
@topffer (42156)
• France
24 Aug 18
Sarcasm ?
1 person likes this
@banksim (5203)
25 Aug 18
@topffer it depends
1 person likes this