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> it still shocks me that there were soldiers on my train in France with machine guns roaming the aisles. It was probably their standard service rifles rather

> it still shocks me that there were soldiers on my train in France with machine guns roaming the aisles. It was probably their standard service rifles rather than machine guns. If it was around the mid 90s, the last three years, or some other period in-between with heightened terrorist threat, they were there for your security. Unlike US policemen, French soldiers have never killed civilians until now, so you should feel quite safe when seeing them. They also don't arrest you, act aggressive or interact at all with civilians unlike border guards, so I don't see any link with the current topic.

thieving_magpie 9y ago
This was in 2008. Yeah I'm totally ignorant on the type of guns so they probably were just standard service rifles. I frequently saw them traveling in groups of three and having dogs sniff me while I rode the train. Again, it was just a bit of a culture shock I'm not saying anything negative about it. Your comparison of US Policemen and French soldiers isn't fair. I've known a couple people from France of Algerian descent, you can imagine their opinion of French police isn't too dissimilar of yours about US police.
- seszett 9y ago
  > you can imagine their opinion of French police isn't too dissimilar of yours about US police. I was talking about the soldiers though, and how they are actually harmless to civilians. Police is of course a different matter, even though they still are far less lethal than in the US. As far as I know, in the US soldiers don't patrol the streets and their role is taken by the police force however, so that's why I compared them. My wife is not from Europe and I live in the "Arab district" of my city, so I have a reasonably good understanding of how our police force works.
  - thieving_magpie 9y ago
    I understand. I'm simply saying that it's a poor comparison due to the differences in the relationship between Local police and federal (agencies/soldiers,etc) and in France with police/Gendarmerie/etc.

thieving_magpie 9y ago

This was in 2008. Yeah I'm totally ignorant on the type of guns so they probably were just standard service rifles. I frequently saw them traveling in groups of three and having dogs sniff me while I rode the train. Again, it was just a bit of a culture shock I'm not saying anything negative about it. Your comparison of US Policemen and French soldiers isn't fair. I've known a couple people from France of Algerian descent, you can imagine their opinion of French police isn't too dissimilar of yours about US police.

seszett 9y ago
> you can imagine their opinion of French police isn't too dissimilar of yours about US police. I was talking about the soldiers though, and how they are actually harmless to civilians. Police is of course a different matter, even though they still are far less lethal than in the US. As far as I know, in the US soldiers don't patrol the streets and their role is taken by the police force however, so that's why I compared them. My wife is not from Europe and I live in the "Arab district" of my city, so I have a reasonably good understanding of how our police force works.
- thieving_magpie 9y ago
  I understand. I'm simply saying that it's a poor comparison due to the differences in the relationship between Local police and federal (agencies/soldiers,etc) and in France with police/Gendarmerie/etc.