Fingers, meet face – Winnipeg Free Press

Opinion

It was definitely a slap heard around the world.

French President Emmanuel Macron, who has been on a tour to take the pulse of his country after the pandemic, was slapped in the face Tuesday during a walkabout in southern France as he greeted a small crowd of onlookers.

Amateur video footage of the slap quickly went viral on social media. It showed a man — later identified as Damien Tarel, 28 — slapping Macron, then shouting, “Down with Macronia” and “Montjoie, Saint-Denis,” the battle cry of the French army when the country was a monarchy.

A bodyguard, who was standing right behind Macron, raised a hand to protect the president, but was a fraction of a second too late to stop the slap. The bodyguard then put his arm around the president to shield him.

On Thursday, Tarel was sentenced to four months in prison.

Macron told reporters he had not feared for his safety, and continued shaking hands with members of the public after he was struck. “I greeted the people who were by the man’s side and made pictures with them. I continued and will continue. Nothing will stop me,” he said. “You cannot have violence, or hate, either in speech or actions. Otherwise, it’s democracy itself that is threatened.”

It’s far from the first time five fingers saying hello to a face have made headlines around the world, as we see from today’s striking list of Five Infamous Slapping Incidents:

5) The slapper: An easily offended woman

The slapped: A breastfeeding mom

Talking smack: Still in France, the first item on today’s list features a new mom who was verbally harangued and slapped in the face for the following crime — breastfeeding her six-month-old son on a street in Bordeaux.

In the incident, which made global headlines and spread quickly on social media, a woman identified only as “Maÿlis” said she was in line to collect a parcel and using a jacket to cover herself to discreetly breastfeed her infant son when a nearby woman began to shout and verbally abuse her. Maÿlis said she was told: “There is a red light, cars are stopping, and children can see you. You are a mom. You should make sure your son is fed. You should have done that at your house. It is not something that is done in public.”

While shouting, the angry woman moved closer to the new mom, according to news reports. “I was slapped right in the face, with my baby in my arms,” Maÿlis said. “The woman behind her in the queue congratulated her. A much older woman. So I had absolutely no help from people who were there. The rest of the queue lowered their heads, ignored it and nothing happened. No one defended me. No one had a go at the woman. No one reacted.” She went home but later went to the police station to press charges, where an officer was unhelpful.

“The police officer took down my statement as if he had other things to do. He even asked me what percentage of my chest had been visible. I said zero, because I had a specially adapted T-shirt, and I was also covering myself with a jacket,” she said on Instagram.

French law does not prohibit breastfeeding in public.

4) The slapper: The wife of Belgium’s ambassador to South Korea

The slapped: A Seoul clothing-store worker

Talking smack: If you’re going to slap someone in the face, it might be wise to ensure the assault is not recorded on video. Unfortunately for her, the wife of Belgium’s ambassador to South Korea was captured on surveillance video in April when she got into an ugly dispute with a pair of store employees in Seoul. Video of the slapping incident sparked public outrage after it was broadcast on national television in Korea.

The brouhaha prompted Belgium’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs to recall Ambassador Peter Lescouhier from his post in South Korea, saying the diplomat couldn’t perform his duties in a “serene” manner after his wife, Xiang Xueqiu, was caught on video. Xiang initially invoked diplomatic immunity to avoid potential charges, but Belgian authorities quickly waived that right.

The altercation took place on April 9 with CCTV footage widely shared online showing Xiang arguing with two store assistants after one of the women asked her about a jacket she was wearing, mistakenly believing she might have stolen it. The employee, who wished to remain anonymous, told CNN earlier she couldn’t understand Xiang and tried to look at the label inside the jacket. When she confronted Xiang on the street outside the store, she saw the jacket was not from the shop. She apologized and came back inside, but was pursued by Xiang.

In the video, Xiang can be seen gesticulating angrily and shoving one of the clerks before slapping her across the face. A photo shared with CNN showed the woman was left with a large red welt on her face. Xiang later met the shop employee to apologize for her “unacceptable behaviour,” the Belgian foreign ministry said.

“Now that Mrs. Xiang Xueqiu has personally presented her excuses and co-operated with the police, Minister of Foreign Affairs Sophie Wilmès has decided that it is in the best interest of our bilateral relations to end Ambassador Lescouhier’s tenure in the Republic of Korea this summer,” the statement added.

3) The slapper: Journalist/novelist Sondra Gotlieb

The slapped: Social secretary Connie Connor

Talking smack: Speaking of ambassadors’ wives caught in slapping scandals, we would be remiss not to mention an infamous incident involving renowned Canadian writer Sondra Gotlieb, who was married to Allan Gotlieb, Canadian ambassador to the United States during the presidency of Ronald Reagan.

A newspaper columnist and writer noted for her irreverent wit and sharp tongue, she was deemed a “sparkling hostess” for her Washington soirées. At a party on March 9, 1986, a dinner at the Canadian Embassy held to honour then-prime minister Brian Mulroney and U.S. vice-president George H.W. Bush, the Winnipeg-born Gotlieb became the big story for an embarrassing incident involving the embassy’s social secretary, Connie Connor.

“Shortly before the vice-president arrived, the social secretary and Sondra Gotlieb… had an exchange of words, during which Mrs. Gotlieb slapped Ms. (Connor) across the face,” then CBC reporter Mike Duffy told viewers on The National the following night. “Reporters standing outside heard the blow and looked up to see the secretary running off in tears.”

As Gotlieb explained in a later book about the era, she was in a terrible, harried state of mind, owing in part to a period of self-imposed starvation so she could fit into a new dress, and momentarily lost control in front of numerous luminaries. The day after the slap, an embassy spokesperson released a statement saying that “an incident of a purely personal character” had occurred, which was also “immediately regretted.”

An apology was extended and accepted. “I was hungry and I was tired and everything kind of exploded,” Gotlieb told CBC’s Midday in 1990. “And I apologized immediately afterward, and both of us finished the evening thinking we had a wonderful success. It was such a tiny incident, it was not public.”

She joked in a 2001 article that, after hearing someone mock Canada, “for the second time in my life I felt like slapping someone’s face.”

2) The slapper: Hollywood legend Zsa Zsa Gabor

The slapped: Beverly Hills cop Paul Kramer

Talking smack: It was labelled “the slap heard ’round the world,” and that was before social media was a thing. The unrepentant slapper was Hollywood legend Zsa Zsa Gabor, a socialite and sometime actress who was primarily famous for being famous, along with having nine husbands over her lifetime.

It began June 14, 1989, when Gabor was driving her US$215,000 Rolls-Royce and Beverly Hills police motorcycle officer Paul Kramer stopped the actress for driving her car with expired registration tags. As Kramer checked for other violations, including having an open container of alcohol in the vehicle and an expired licence, Gabor drove off. When the officer chased her down and pulled her over again, Gabor slapped him, although she claimed that she had only acted in self-defence because Kramer used excessive force in arresting her.

She said that her treatment by the police was “like Nazi Germany.” Kramer insisted that the slap was unprovoked. According to the L.A. Times, what ensued was more a circus than a trial. Gabor lashed out at Kramer and made wild accusations, claiming police videotapes after the arrest were doctored to show her using vulgar language.

“In Nazi Hungary they were fairer than here. Here they don’t kill you. They kill you with words,” she told reporters at one point. The judge accused the former Miss Hungary of “milking” the criminal justice system to publicize herself. At one point, there was a mock fight in the court building between a Zsa Zsa Gabor impersonator and a man in a “Hang Zsa Zsa” T-shirt.

Gabor was ordered to serve three days in jail, to pay fines and retribution totalling US$12,937, to perform 120 hours of community service and to undergo a psychiatric evaluation. Asked how she felt about the prospects of jail, Gabor, who died in 2016 at age 99, said: “That would be wonderful. I’d have time to write my book.”

1) The slapper: Gen. George S. Patton

The slapped: Two traumatized U.S. army privates

Talking smack: If you’ve watched the Oscar-winning 1969 movie about Gen. George Patton, you know the man they called “Old Blood and Guts” was a hard-driving but flawed war hero, a man known for his intense personality, tactical genius and harsh treatment of those he deemed cowards.

In early August 1943, Patton infamously slapped two U.S. army soldiers under his command during the Sicily campaign of the Second World War. He refused to believe in what was then known as “shell shock” or “battle fatigue,” which led him to slap and berate two privates who were being treated at field hospitals without obvious physical injuries.

On Aug. 3, he confronted rifleman Charles Kuhl and asked where he was hurt. “I guess I can’t take it,” came the young man’s unsteady reply. Patton exploded, yanking the soldier to his feet, calling him a coward and slapping him across the face with a leather glove. Patton then chased the youth from the tent with a kick to the backside.

Days later, he confronted Pte. Paul Bennett, who was recovering from exhaustion. “It’s my nerves,” the private answered when the general inquired about his condition. “I can’t stand the shelling anymore.” The general exploded again, slapping Bennett twice and roaring: “You’re going back to the front lines and you may get shot and killed, but you’re going to fight. If you don’t, I’ll stand you up against a wall and have a firing squad kill you on purpose. In fact, I ought to shoot you myself, you goddamned whimpering coward.”

When the slap stories hit the U.S., reaction was divided between delight and derision. Patton’s superior, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, ordered him to apologize to the men. “I clearly understand that firm and drastic measures are at times necessary in order to secure the desired objectives. But this does not excuse brutality, abuse of the sick, nor exhibition of uncontrollable temper in front of subordinates,” Ike wrote.

doug.speirs@freepress.mb.ca