Looking Back On The Reporting Of The Paris Terrorist

Mickaël Harpon stabbed and killed four people at Paris's Police Headquarters on Thursday. Today we are looking back on the reporting of the Paris terrorist.

Workplace Violence - The New Jihad

Sometimes it's worth waiting for the news-cycle to evolve as more information comes out.

Terrorism is often under-reported or hidden by obfuscation in the way a terrorist act is committed. For example, terrorism can be replaced with reports of "workplace violence" or "mentally ill person attacks". Why are authorities, police forces and the press so eager to downplay terrorism? Today we take a look back on the press reports in the aftermath of the latest murders in Paris.

CBS News went with this:

CBS Quoting "Workplace Violence"

You can find the link HERE.

FoxSports640 went with the same:

FoxSports640 Quoting "Workplace Violence"

You can find the link HERE.

CBS reported it was "officials" who started the "workplace violence" story.

CBS Tweets "Workplace Violence"

The Irish Times went with:

Irish Times Quoting "Workplace Violence"

Irish Times Quoting "Workplace Conflict"

You can find that link HERE.

Good Natured Model Employee

The Independent, amongst other news publications, quoted Christophe Castaner (the French Minister of the Interior) who went on record saying that the attacker was a "model employee" and never presented any "behavioural issues". We are paraphrasing slightly here, but you can read the Independent's reporting HERE.

So what can we take from that? A senior official's immediate reaction was to dampen down any "terrorist" narrative. Castaner was not the only one, though. Police Union Leader Jean-Marc Bailleul described the incident as "criminal" rather than "terrorist" related.

Reality A Few Days Later

So four days after the "attack" it seems that the murdering individual Mickaël Harpon was identified in 2015 as exhibiting "signs of radicalisation". He would not shake hands with women employees. He showed support for the Charlie Hebdo attack saying the satirical magazine's cartoonists "had it coming". He married a Muslim woman and converted to Islam.

You would have thought that when his colleagues had "informally" brought these issues up with their supervisors, Mickaël could have been monitored, but no, that was not to be. The question is, why?

Expressing support for a terror attack in which many people died isn't enough to be kicked out of the French civilian police force it seems. And to rub salt into the wound Mickaël's colleagues who raised issues about his behaviour sought advice from colleagues "specialised in such matters". Some specialists they are!

Has Political Correctness Killed Four People?

Although "informal" reports of Mickaël's behaviour were listened to, he was deemed to be fine, and there was "nothing to worry about". Colleagues of Mickaël's "declined" to make a "formal" report on their "suspicions" of his radicalisation, had they done so then this "incident" may not have occurred.

Did people fear being labelled as racist, islamophobic or any other pejorative term if they reported him?

If so, did that fear prevent them from filing an "official" complaint?

Christophe Castaner, the French Minister of the Interior, said that Mickaël Harpon never gave the "slightest reason for alarm", he was a model employee. The papers reported "workplace violence", yet the murderer supported a terror attack, converted to Islam, married a Muslim woman, didn't like to embrace or touch female colleagues and has been in contact with Salafists.

Nothing to see here, its NOT an act of terrorism, it was "workplace violence" and a "criminal" act, nothing more!