Trappes, and the seventy thousand

At about 10:30 on Friday a man opened fire from a car in Trappes and La Verrière, two towns in the Yvelines west of Paris, killing one person and seriously wounding several others¹. Among the wounded is a 12-year-old girl, now reported stable at Necker hospital in Paris¹. Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said one person had been killed and four injured, and that the suspect had been arrested¹.

What is established. The suspect, 39, was arrested in Coignières and is in custody¹. The national anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office (Pnat) has opened an investigation for murder and attempted murders “in relation with a terrorist enterprise”, with the aggravating circumstance that the acts were committed because of the victims’ real or supposed race, ethnicity, nation or religion, and for possession of a category A weapon¹. Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez called it “clearly a terrorist crime”¹. According to franceinfo’s sources, the suspect’s flat was found booby-trapped¹. His motives have not been officially stated¹.

What is not. Local officials have offered readings of a possible motive; the minister declined to go beyond calling it “a murderous rampage”¹. This desk will wait for the prosecutor. Speculation in the first hours of an attack has a poor record and a high cost.

Saturday. Hours later Mr Nuñez set out the security plan for Saturday’s protests against the cost of living and in support of school students: 70,000 police and gendarmes across the country, 10,000 more than on 17 October². Raid, GIGN and BRI units will guard public buildings rather than police marches; about twenty Centaure armoured vehicles and some fifteen water cannon will be deployed². Prefects may ban marches where safety cannot be ensured, and routes away from shopping districts are preferred². About 2,400 people were arrested on 17 October and nearly 500 more in the following days².

The constructive reading. France’s institutions were asked two different questions on Friday: how to respond to an attack, and how to protect the right to protest without another night like Limoges. The answer to both is the same boring set of tools: a prosecutor with a clear remit, police inquiries that are counted and published, and rules announced the day before rather than improvised on the night.