A shooting

 

 



May 20^th, 2010 is the date where everything changed in my life. Before living in Paris, I used to live in a small city really close to Paris: Villiers sur Marne. At the beginning, it was a nice city; however, over the years, the city began to deteriorate. There was a lot of violence, robberies, fights and breakages. Nevertheless, people of my city never thought about huge violence like a shooting. Everybody in my city will remember this day. It started with a chase between robbers and the police and it is finished with a shooting. Many people were hurt and a young policewoman was killed. Since this day, the violence in the city has gotten worse and it began to affect the security of my family and others citizens. Today, five years after this shooting, the fear is still here despite of moving to a better city.

 

 

After this terrible shooting, people did not feel in security anymore. The violence began to get worste and the police could not control all the violence which happened in my city. There were fights in the streets, rackets, robberies and break-in every times. This city began to be controlled by the criminals and the police could not do anything, and it is affected people’s freedom. Young people could not go out at night alone after 9 pm. Parents had to pick up their children all the time. In the same way teenagers could not stay with their friends after class because it was too dangerous. People were not free anymore and they lived in the insecurity to be attacked every time they went out and this insecurity decided my parents to move.

 

Effectively, my parents decided to move to Paris for better security and a better neighborhood. My parents choose a really good area in Paris to buy and it was definitively better than my previous area. There was a better police presence in the streets, and I was starting to feel more secure compared to my old town. I began to rediscover my freedom. I could go out with my friends at night and come back in total safety; I could stay with my friends after school without being afraid to be attacked. It was because of my good neighborhood, I could walk quietly in the street with the light-hearted. This was never happened in Villiers sur Marne. I was not afraid to be attacked on my way to go home. My parents’ decision to move to Paris for a better was an excellent decision.

 

 

 

However, the fear is one of the effects of the shooting that is still here and may never go away. In my area in Paris, I am totally in confidence, free and not afraid. But, when I have to go to another area that I do not really know, my fear and insecurity come back. I am starting to be afraid and paranoid. When I am alone, at the nightfall or the night, in the street and there is a man who appears on the corner of the street, I start to panic and my heart starts beating really fast. I hold my bag strongly and I start to walk faster. I am afraid to be attacked. I am beginning to feel in insecure just like in my old town. This shooting taught me to be really prudent in the street the night. When I am not in my area and when my fear come back, I put my phone at the bottom of my pocket, I keep my keys close to me and I have a spray in my bag in case someone attacks me. I walk fast and take the streets where there is the most of people. Today I am more carefully when I walk in the streets.

 

After this shooting, I used to be in insecure, but my move to a better city and a better neighborhood, helped me to rediscover my freedom and be more in security. However, even in a good city, bad things happened all the time. It can be minor event like robberies and fights but it can be a major event like the attempt to the newspaper Charlie Hebdo, and at these moments my fear comes back.