Lunch in Malibu Helps to Cement a ‘French Connection’

• French Police Officers Spend Time in the Field with Some American Counterparts

BY HANS LAETZ

What did you do when you saw a foreign ocean for the first time?

Monday afternoon at Paradise Cove, a phalanx of French National Police officers, dressed in parade finery and polished boots, ran down to the water, dipped their hands in it, and ran backwards like schoolchildren when the waves threatened to soak their trouser legs.

The 35 cycle cops from Paris were in Malibu for an exchange program orchestrated by the French Consul General in Los Angeles, anxious to bolster bilateral cooperation between the U.S. and a nation that, while taking a few verbal slings from some Americans, has been what police officials say is a model of cooperation for law and antiterrorist efforts.

The officers were welcomed at the Agoura Hills sheriff’s station Monday by Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca and high-ranking officials from the California Highway Patrol and Beverly Hills and Los Angeles police departments. The four agencies are hosting the French officers for 10 days of training that will be capped by French officers working alongside local gendarmes at the Golden Globe Awards next week in Beverly Hills.

On Wednesday, the French officers went through four maze training courses at an LASD training facility near Sylmar. Wednesday afternoon, the French officers were scheduled to perform a “motorcycle arabesque.”

Monday’s motorcade was accompanied by Los Angeles sheriff’s deputies and California Highway Patrol officers on BMWs, and Los Angeles Police officers on their Harley Davidsons. Some three dozen Yamaha motorcycles were shipped from Paris to Houston via container ship, and then by rail to Los Angeles.

“This is my bike,” said a smiling Paris cop named Fred Gallais, as he sat astride the sleek white machine. “I am glad to be back with her.”

Motorists along Kanan Dume Road and Pacific Coast Highway Monday may have thought they witnessed a neon-blue and white streak go past them in the other direction. The French officers rode in tight formation on their distinctive Yamaha police motorcycles, each sporting two very bright blue front floodlights.

Monday’s ride began in Castaic, and swooped through Fillmore, Moorpark and Thousand Oaks before reaching the coast. Officers noted that the afternoon’s ride on the 405 freeway back to Castaic was the widest freeway the French had ever seen.

The French were welcomed to the streets of Agoura Hills by Los Angeles Sheriff Lee Baca and other speechmakers. “We local police in America are fighting not only crime, but finding that we are in a multinational society,” Baca said. “It is important that we have the ability to instantly connect with our counterparts around the world.”

The French consul general in Los Angeles, Philippe Larrieu, said the two nations “have shared traditional excellent relations in the fight against crime and against terrorism” for years, and said he organized the exchange “to set up daily, ongoing cooperation between French and American police.”

Baca noted that two criminals on the lam from the French have already been arrested by the joint Franco-American police liaison recently established in Los Angeles. Jean-Phillipe Goudet, a French National Police officer stationed in Los Angeles, said one of the two alleged French fraud suspects has already begun a prison term in Paris. The second is awaiting extradition

The French Police are staying in dormitories at the L.A. sheriff’s prison complex near Castaic, and several law enforcement and civic foundations are picking up special expenditures, such as banquets, for the officers, Baca said. “This is being done at essentially no cost to the taxpayers, and when we can learn from each other what mistakes can be corrected, and what steps we can take, then this is a bargain.”

Officers in the Malibu-Lost Hills station’s parking lot had more operational issues in mind as they chatted. A pair of CHP officers was overheard asking their Parisian counterparts if they ride their cycles in the rain, or switch to patrol cars, the CHP policy.

The French cops were heard asking about tan-colored American uniforms, which are much lighter than the heavy blue peacoats that the French were wearing in the 85-degree January sun.

Bernard Khalili, a reserve Los Angeles police officer who is a native French speaker, said he was thrilled to serve both nations and both departments as a translator. “I’m trying to explain it all to both sides, and it is getting exciting,” he said, as he was in the middle of three conversations in the parking lot.

“We cooperate with all the countries and police agencies in all the nations,” Khalili said. “We are trying to show the world that we can all work together.”

But on the first day of the exchange, the various motorcycles were the main subject. “We are anxious to see how your motorcycles compare next to ours,” said officer Gallais, the Paris motorcycle cop admiring a Los Angeles Police Harley parked at the Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station. “When we see an American movie we see the Harleys, and I love the Harley style.”

But after examining the big U.S.-made cycles, Gallais said they would not be very efficient for the narrow streets, tight curves and lane-splitting necessary in the arrondissements of Paris. “We cannot do the same job by machine in Paris that they do in L.A,” he said, gesturing at the LAPD Harleys.

After the ceremonies in Agoura Hills, about 70 French and U.S. officers motored through KananDume’s tunnels for a seaside lunch at Paradise Cove. Several French cops noted the similarity in terrain between the French Riviera and Malibu.

“We have roads exactly like that between Marseille and Nice,” said officer Arnould Sylvain, of Paris.

Then, a few officers, like tourists from anywhere in the world, braved the 85-degree skies and 60-degree water to touch the Pacific.

“Is it like this everyday?” one asked, as he cleaned the salt and sand from his boots.

CAPTION 1., photo credit, MSN Photos/Hans Laetz
BLUE STREAK—Officers from the French National Police head down Pacific Coast Highway. The gleaming white Yamaha motorcycles with bright blue headlamps were transported from Paris by container ship.

CAPTION 2., photo credit, MSN Photos/Hans Laetz
TESTING THE WATERS—After lunch with some of the deputies from local jurisdictions, a few of the officers broke ranks and checked out the ocean.

CAPTION 3., photo credit, MSN Photos/Hans Laetz
COOPERATION—The French officers in dress uniforms lined up in front of the Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station. While visiting here, they will work with their American counterparts at the Golden Globe ceremonies next week.