French prison break shows that life is a crime film

Somewhat to my surprise, Gene Hackman is still alive. In “the nervous nineties” but still alive. Hell of an actor, Gene. The former US Marine became famous for being charismatically gritty. An uncompromising FBI investigator in Mississippi Burning, a brutal sheriff in The Unforgiven, and, most famously, remorseless cop “Popeye” Doyle who revealed, back in 1971, that there was a French Connection in international drug trafficking. 

Hackman won an Academy Award for his performance. Shocked journalists and outraged politicians have won nul points for a similar and sudden realisation in the aftermath of the murderous ambush of a police convoy near Rouen in northern France and the escape of Mohamed “the Fly” Amra, during which two French prison officers were shot dead. 

The armed springing of Amra, which took place on Tuesday, may have its origins further south in notorious Marseille and, as an international manhunt gets underway, French PM Gabriel Attal has channelled his inner Liam Neeson pledging: “We will track them, we will find them, they will pay.” Let’s hope he has that particular set of skills.

I was in France over the weekend. I rush to add that the two developments are unrelated. No greater criminality did I witness than the hiding handed out to La Rochelle by les Bordelais, Damien Penaud mugging Gregory Aldritt for a thief’s try in the corner of an uproarious Stade Chaban-Delmas.

But, over that weekend, Le Figaro alerts flashed up constantly. News of a dismembered man found in a suitcase and two policeman shot in a police station in Paris. All this hot on the heels of the trial of a French prison guard giving the Judas kiss to her charges at Corsica’s La Bastia airport so an assassin could identify them. Among the dead was a man called “Tony The Butcher”.

Back with prison breaks, France is not unused to coup de théâtre spectaculars. In 2001, Pascal Payet, sent down for a raid on a Banque de France armoured car, escaped not once but twice. By helicopter.

Of similar apparent surprises that aren’t is news, via The Times, that Marbella has become “The UN of crime”. Yes, the same Marbella that was known in the 70s and 80s, when Spain didn’t have an extradition treaty with Britain, as the “Costa del Crime”. I refer you to Sexy Beast for details. Not to be outdone, the Italian Camorra called it Costa Nostra. 

Today’s Times also reports on Daniel Kinahan, boxing promoter and named by the Irish high court as a major figure in international drug and arms trafficking. Now living in Dubai, following a lengthy spell in Marbella, his wife,The Times alleges, is trading in property to avoid asset freezes. 

Irish TD Neale Richmond said some while back: “Daniel Kinahan needs to come back to Ireland to answer to the very many rulings of the High Court and what’s been accepted by the Special Criminal Court.

“The work of the Kinahan cartel has been an absolute blight on the streets of our capital for some years now.”

There, I think, is the difference between then and now. As I write, news is breaking of a woman shot in the legs in the crossfire between two cars in London. Sweden has problems with international organised crime targeting police. The dangers of being a French policeman are well known whether escorting prisoners or dealing with the violence of notorious estates. Irish news reports Kinahan “taking on the Irish state“. While The Times describes Marbella as a parade of ostentatious bling, gunshots and Yakuza-style tattoos.

There is, to it all, a nakedness. An almost defiant disregard for consequence and little concern for “civilians” who might get caught up in things of which they know nothing and have no interest. 

Life is becoming a movie. A gangster flick. Imitating art. Exaggerated violence. Impunity. Crime pays. The extras bleeding on the margins but not central to the plot.  

And Gene Hackman is 94.

Write to us with your comments to be considered for publication at letters@reaction.life