Four police officers were knifed to death by a colleague on October 3rd. What has emerged about the killer is sinister
themselves were shocking. On October 3rd four police officers were knifed to death at Paris police headquarters by one of their colleagues. What has emerged since is more sinister. The perpetrator, who was shot dead at the scene, was a suspected jihadist who had access to classified police intelligence files.
France has been shaken by the revelations. Mickaël Harpon was a 45-year-old French computer technician from Martinique, employed since 2003 at the intelligence service within the Paris police headquarters. He enjoyed high-level security clearance, which was renewed in 2008 and 2013.
Arriving on the scene, Christophe Castaner, the interior minister, declared that Harpon had “never shown the slightest warning sign” during the time he worked at police headquarters. He had no criminal record, nor was there any sign of concern about him in his work files. It emerges, however, that colleagues were worried. Harpon had voiced approval of theterrorist attacks in Paris in 2015.
How could such an individual have gone undetected? Battered by bloody terrorist attacks in 2015 and 2016, France has put in place a system designed to detect radicalised people, which was expanded last year. It includes a grid of warning signs, such as a change in dress or behaviour, which are supposed to trigger an alert. The system yields some success. According to a parliamentary report in June, 12,809 people are on a watch list as a result.
Such procedures are not fail-safe. Colleagues who voiced concerns about Harpon declined to submit written complaints. It is not clear why. A culture of solidarity? A fear of stigmatising Harpon, who was partially deaf? Mr Castaner this week recognised “dysfunctions” in the system. An inquiry is under way. Opposition leaders called on him to resign. The affair leaves many questions unanswered—and a fresh sense of vulnerability in France.
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