Compagnie Républicaine de Sécurité

     CRS           

These are agents of the Compagnie Républicaine de Sécurité(pronounced /kõpaŋi ʁepyblikɛn də sekyʁite/),or CRS /se ɛʁ es/. The average person in France associates the abbreviation CRS with riotpolice, demonstrations, and other public scenes of disorder, mainly because the CRS is the unit of the regular police that is normally detailed with this type of crowd control.(They also perform duties such as rescue operations and the like, but those activitiesdon't get muchmedia coverage.) They have a widespread but undeservedly sinister reputation, probably thanks to guilt via association, since they are usually seenpublicly only in tense situations, such as public demonstrations, riots, and the like.While the media give considerable attention to the occasional instances of policebrutality, in many cases the CRS end up more beat up than the crowds they are attemptingto control—which is especially significant when you consider how well protectedthe CRS usually are.

Anyway, here we see CRS agents on a typical assignment, preparing to meet an advancingpublic demonstration at the place Vendôme.One can usually tell how unruly demonstrators are expected to be by the number and attireof the CRS agents in attendance: for peaceful, good-natured demonstrations, they usually have only a token presence, and they are dressed in their usual uniforms (only slightlymore militaristic than standard police officers); but for demonstrations that risk turningugly, they turn out in full riot gear, with helmets, batons, tear gas, full body padding,and large unbreakable plastic shields—as well as trucks with water cannons in theworst cases. Fortunately, the vast majority of demonstrations are pretty tame (much morepeaceful than the television media usually depict them to be), and violence of any kindis relatively rare. In this case, judging by the CRS presence, I'd say that this demonstration was a bit more tense than usual, but nothing really serious.

I'm not sure why the CRS were stopping this demonstration at this particular point, but it may have been because this plaza is ringed by very fancy stores with jewelry andsimilar merchandise (in fact, the Ritz Hotel is here, and the white canopies over its entrance are visible on the building facade in thedistant background). They may have been concerned about the demonstrators gettingrowdy and trying to loot the jewelry stores; there is some precedent for their concern,as jewelry stores in this area are sometimes the target of troublemakers and robbers.

I personally have never had any problems with the CRS, nor have I ever seen them beatinganyone up (in fact, I've never seen any police brutality in Paris), but it is fashionableto speak disparagingly of them. Perhaps because they represent the state or something.Still, I'd rather be surrounded by CRS agents than by the hoodlums and other scum thatthey are oftenforced to deal with.

By the way, this photo is in black and white only because I happened to have black-and-whitefilm loaded into my camera at the time I took it (if you thought it was some sortof dramatic or artistic statement, sorry to disappoint you). I'll try to get a colorpicture of the CRS one of these days. Incidentally, it's perfectly legal to photographthe police in France (one of the few liberties remaining to photographers inFrance, in fact, is the freedom to photograph people on the street in public),although they aren't always happy about it.

Photographed in 2002.