The madness continues in France. It is still all first-report, and you know as well as I do that first reports are always wrong. What appears to be true it that the brothers Kouachi are dead, and so is a third who conducted his own separate rampage.

I hope so. The brothers were holed up with a hostage in an industrial park near Charles de Gaulle Airport.

The hostage, owner of a small print plant, is not dead and that is good.

I have the flatscreen going in the background as the blood bath in Paris continues to play out. A very bad week turned worse over night. Mass demonstrations by ordinary Parisians to express solidarity with the victims were punctuated by the brutal murder of a minority (and unarmed) police officer named Clarissa Jean-Philippe. A city worker was also “gravely wounded.”

That was apparently the work of Amedy Coulibaly, assisted by a young woman named Hayat Boumeddiene. You have probably seen all their pictures already and I am not going to honor them by posting them.

That escalated into an attack on a Kosher deli near the Porte de Vincennes in the 12th Arrondissement. The attack occurred at the busiest time of the shop’s business week, just before sundown on the Jewish Sabbath. There was shooting, at least ten hostages taken in the initial assault, including women and children.

Since I wrote these words I am hearing that Coulibaly is dead, and maybe four of the hostages. So far, there are seventeen dead Parisians, and the three radical Islamic scumbags.

My brother Spike sent me an update to the brief sentiment I expressed yesterday. We- the West writ large- were all Charlie in the moment that the brothers crashed into the offices of magazine and began blasting away.

My brother’s note? “Je suis Ahmed.”

I puzzled over that one, still foggy with bed-head. I looked it up- there had been a lot going on while I slept- and what I found adds to the monstrous nature of the murders committed by the brothers Kouachi, who I sincerely hope are roasting in hell right now.

The police officer who was casually executed on the street in the initial attack on Charlie Hebdo was named Ahmed Merabet. He was shot in the groin and went down as he approached the Kuoachis while drawing his service weapon. The Guardian Newspaper in London claims this exchange occurred: “Do you want to kill us?” says one of the Kouachis.

Ahmed replies: “Non, ç’est bon, chef” (“No, it’s OK, chief.”). The terrorist then shot him in the head, not even breaking his stride.

I think I am hearing that the Deli stand-off may have just concluded, and four of the hostages may have been killed. The young woman may (or may not) have been a participant. Too much unknown at the moment to claim anything, but if the hostages are freed and the murders are dead, it was a nice piece of work by the Gendarmes.

The images cascading from the scene are wild It is dizzying, more than a little like the wild cross town melee and vast field of flashing red and blue lights that ended the hunt for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in Boston after he ran over his brother Tamerlan in a stolen SUV.

In Paris, the images of the hovering black helicopters and the rattle of gunfire and bright white light of the flash grenades in Paris

There is all sorts of speculation about a connection with Al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). The authorities are good about sorting and stacking this stuff, once the bodies are laid out.

I am not going to get hysterical about Islam. Ahmed Merabet was a Muslim man who died defending the laws that allowed cartoonists to mock his religion. There are good people and bad people in Islam. But the abominable conduct of some of them suggests that Islam has a real problem that they need to deal with, and from which we have to protect ourselves.

I would like to hear something about how we do that. So far today, in the national news I have heard more from the Government about free Community College education than about deranged religious fanatics with Kalashnikovs.

Coverage here in the DC States includes the now obligatory admonition from local Muslim groups that they expect retaliation, and we should be very concerned that they are not made victims. Fair enough, but that really is not the first thing I am concerned about.

But I have to say, “Je suis Ahmed,” in honor of a courageous officer.

We are on Mars, right? I mean, this can’t be real, can it?

Copyright 2014 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com
Twitter: @jayare303