I was in Paris on first day of Olympics - one thing about city left me shocked

Investigations editor Zak Garner-Purkis has been in Paris before the Games (Image: Adam Gerrard)

I felt like I was on the edge of a warzone.

Every two minutes heavily armed officers would stride past with their chests out scanning the surroundings.

The units ranged from military police in combat fatigues with assualt rifles slung across their shoulders to aviator sunglasses-wearing local cops with handguns, national police with tasers and the odd dog division.

If they saw something or someone they didn’t like they look of they swarmed, surrounding the supsect and snatching their ID.

Most of them were nervous looking young men in tracksuits, few looked like hardened terrorists but the security forces were clearly operating on the basis that they should be taking no chances.

But this wasn’t Syria or Ukraine. I was in Paris less than a mile from the event that claims to be the greatest party on earth: The Olympic Games.

The array of armed police in Saint-Denis was astounding (Image: Adam Gerrard)

From my spot sipping a glass of Perrier under the French sunshine it all seemed a bit overboard. The people of Saint-Denis, where the Olympic Stadium and athletes’ village are located, appeared to just want to get on with their lives.

That is simply not possible. Most live in a red zone, which just like in a war-torn country, means there is limited movement. Vehicles must pass through a series of checkpoints manned by, you’ve guessed it, armed guards.

If you want to go through these zones in a vehicle then you need a QR code. These are only provided by those who surrender all the details the French government ask for.

The official description of the efforts to police the Olympics this year is that the French Police have occupied any at-risk areas in a bid to have the Games go-off without disruption. Individual liberties are being sacrificed to protect the event.

There are good reasons for the Paris authorities to be concerned about security. As I have reported previously, there are serious and repeated threats from ISIS as well as a history of terrorism at both the Olympic Stadium and in the city more generally.

In addition to those threats there is also the suggestion that Russia has tried to derail the Games by targeting the transport network and many examples of civil unrest in Paris, including last year’s massive riots.

There were swarms of police all over Paris on the eve of the Olympics (Image: Adam Gerrard)

But I have to say that witnessing the way in which France has decided to restrict the freedom of its citizens, carrying out ID checks and flooding areas with armed police made me appreciate the approach in Britain.

There wasn’t any sense in Paris that citizens had any choice in the no-go zones or spot checks, they just had to comply with this crude show of force.

France needs to remember that telling people where to go and punishing if they don’t comply is what a dictatorship not a democracy does.

People will argue that the risk is too high while we have lone wolves attacking presidential candidates and a list of violent threats seemingly growing by the day.

Yet the way Paris has been locked down is not in, my view, the way to do it.

A state that strongarms its citizens into compliance in an effort to avoid embarrassment whilst the eyes of the world are upon it is on a slippery slope to a future where freedoms and consent no longer exist because they are "too dangerous".