France is supposed to be on high alert following the outbreak of war in the Middle East, but there are mounting questions about how this attack was not prevented. The alleged killer had served four years in prison for planning a radical Islamist attack before being released in 2020 and placed under judicial supervision. This monitoring ended earlier this year, according to a report in Le Figaro, although the man was still subject to what is known as an “Individual Administrative Control and Surveillance Measure,” which is run by the interior ministry.
This system has clearly failed, just as it failed in the case of the Islamist terrorist who killed Dominique Bernard, the Arras schoolteacher. So far, the reaction from Macron’s government has been characteristically feeble. Prime minister Elisabeth Borne tweeted that France “will cede nothing in the face of terrorism. Never.” After the death of Bernard, Borne had vowed that France “will not give in to violence, we will confront it and we will fight it.”
These are trite and meaningless words, and the French are no longer fooled. They know their government is weak and impotent, as is its judiciary. A poll last week revealed that half of people have lost faith in the justice system, mostly because of weak sentencing that allows violent criminals and extremists to roam the streets.
[This is not exclusive to France. After this weekend’s mob actions against Jews, every single one of these criticisms apply in the US too. — Ed]
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