France Paris Police Knife Attack
People stand behind a police tape as they are evacuated nearby the police headquarters after an incident in Paris, Thursday, Oct. 3, 2019. A French police union official says an attacker armed with a knife has killed one officer inside Paris police headquarters before he was shot and killed. (AP Photo/Kamil Zihnioglu)

Q: Why is the right to armed self defense important?
A: Because when seconds count, police are only minutes away.

Q: Why do you carry a gun?
A: Because a cop is too heavy.

Every Democrat presidential candidate: We need to outlaw weapons of war on our streets.
FBI: The metrics show that there were a total of 1,515 deaths by knives or other cutting instruments last year. Compare that against 297 people killed by rifles.

By Sylvie Corbet and Lori Hinnant, Associated Press

A civilian employee raged through Paris police headquarters with a knife Thursday, stabbing four police colleagues to death before he was shot and killed, French authorities said.

The man, a technology administrator in the police intelligence unit, launched the attack in his office then moved to other parts of the large 19th century building across the street from Notre Dame Cathedral.

Three of the people he killed were police officers, the fourth an administrator, the Paris prosecutor said.

An officer stopped the attack when he shot the assailant in the compound’s courtyard, said a police official. The official was not authorized to talk publicly about the case and requested anonymity.

The employee who carried out the attack had worked for the city’s police force since 2003 without ever arousing concerns, French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said.

“There were no warning signs,” Castaner said.

“This man was known inside the computer department, he worked alongside his colleagues and never presented any behavioral difficulties,” he added.

Paris prosecutor Remy Heitz said authorities opened a murder investigation, for the moment ruling out a terrorism inquiry. He said the 45-year-old assailant’s home was being searched.

Three of the victims were men and one was a woman, Heitz said. A department employee wounded in the rampage underwent emergency surgery Thursday afternoon, Castaner said.

Emery Siamandi, who works at police headquarters, said he was in the stairwell leading to the chief’s office when he heard gunshots.

“I told myself, this isn’t right,” Siamandi said. “Moments later, I saw three policewomen crying. I couldn’t help them in any way, and their colleagues were crying, too, so I figured it must be serious.”

He said he saw one officer on his knees in tears.

“It’s the worst scenario possible, an internal attack with colleagues working together,” said Philippe Capon of the UNSA police union.

Capon cautioned against jumping to conclusions on the motive and said, “Nothing can be ruled out, including a personal issue.”

French media reported the employee carried out the attack with a ceramic knife.

The attack came a day after thousands of officers marched in Paris to protest low wages, long hours and increasing suicides in their ranks.

President Emmanuel Macron stopped by police headquarters to show solidarity with officers and department employees, his office said.

The neighborhood where the police compound is located, a busy tourist destination, was locked down, the Cite metro stop was closed and the bridge between Notre Dame and the headquarters building was blocked off.

“Paris weeps for its own this afternoon after this terrifying attack in the police headquarters. The toll is heavy, several officers lost their lives,” Mayor Anne Hidalgo tweeted.

Extremists have repeatedly targeted French police in France in recent years. In 2017, a gunman opened fire on the Champs-Elysees boulevard, killing one officer before he was shot to death.

In 2016, an attack inspired by the Islamic State group killed a police officer and his companion, an administrator, at their home in front of their child.

 

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91 COMMENTS

    • Probably because if he was a White man that would of been the first words plastered on the headlines……

    • From The AP:

      “The man, who converted to Islam 18 months ago, was not believed to be radicalized and had no history of psychiatric problems, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing investigation.”

      I’m calling fake news because everyone knows that Islam is the religion of peace…

    • The perp, Michael Harpon, 45, was born in the French Caribbean overseas department of Martinique (black). He had been married since 2014, and converted to his wife’s [Islam]religion in 2018.

    • The Telegraph reports his name is “Mickaël H.”

      But there is very little information about him. I wish reporters would do more “reporting.”

  2. Recently converted to Islam according to reports. Strange. 😉

    “PARIS (Reuters) – The police employee who killed four of his colleagues at the Paris police headquarters was a recent convert to Islam, French television BFM TV said on Thursday.

    The 45-year-old attacker killed three police officers and an administrative worker, three men and one woman, before being shot dead by an officer, the Paris prosecutor said earlier. “

    • “The police employee who killed four of his colleagues at the Paris police headquarters was a recent convert to Islam, French television BFM TV said on Thursday.”

      This is my surprised face.

      The religion of complete and total submission to the Prophet strikes again…

      • I thought it was funny. I saw an even better joke, though, on another comment board somewhere playing on that same white flag theme. Something to the effect of: As a show of national mourning, France will lower all white flags to half staff.

    • Would Red Flag laws have done anything to prevent this, considering everyone was surprised because he had never given any prior indication of malfeasance?

      • No…. but a building full of good guys with guns would have deterred it. He may have sought out a softer target…. I remember reading (after the Charlie Hebdo thing) that something like 90% of French cops would quit if they were required to carry a gun. Paris Police HQ = soft target. Just begging to get attacked.

        • I didn’t realize that French police do not carry firearms. I thought that was only England.

        • A building full of armed individuals would probably mean this perpetrator was armed as well, and the death toll would’ve been much higher with a firearm.

          The fact is, firearms mean higher body counts.

          And it is very difficult to be prepared for a blue on blue attacks, surprise is the key factor.

        • Miner49er says: “A building full of armed individuals would probably mean this perpetrator was armed as well, and the death toll would’ve been much higher with a firearm.”

          That’s not how it works. Administrative and support staff are rarely armed in these organizations. Had these LEOs been armed, the death toll may have been one.

          Miner49er says: “The fact is, firearms mean higher body counts.”

          That’s not how that works either. The fact is; firearms are used in self-defense hundreds of thousands, if not millions, more times than in the crime of murder.

        • “I remember reading (after the Charlie Hebdo thing) that something like 90% of French cops would quit if they were required to carry a gun. Paris Police HQ = soft target. Just begging to get attacked.”

          Sorry, but WRONG! I can personally attest that this is 100% incorrect. Police in the UK have shown that sentiment, but all French police are armed (and always have been over the last 100 or so years). Back in March of this year, my wife and I had an opportunity to visit Paris. Being a former LEO, I’m always fascinated when traveling abroad by law enforcement in different countries (and hate not being able to carry). I happen to be an organ buff and we even went to an organ concert in Notre Dame 4 weeks and 2 days before it burned down. That was on a Saturday evening. On Sunday afternoon, before our tour started, we went to Saint Sulpice church for another organ concert. While inside, right after it ended, a fire broke out. I recently came across an article regarding the fire, and it turns out it was arson (approximately $1,000,000 in damage to Saint Sulpice). I have approximately 20-minutes of footage I need to throw up on YouTube, because I still suspect the arsonist is in some of the footage (A female that bothered me for days that we observed right before stumbling upon the fire, but that story is for a different time and we found out really quickly that shouting “fire” in English really gets you funny looks with no action! [Couldn’t think of the French word for fire under stress.]). Okay, it is late and I am rambling . . .

          Anyway, the French have two different police organizations, the Gendarmerie Nationale and the Police Nationale. The Police Nationale are the primary police inside of Paris. The Gendarmerie are more of a military organization and outside of the cities, although we saw a heavy presence of both, especially with the yellow vest protests. That Saturday (March 16th) when we are at the Notre Dame concert was the day that a mother and child were killed on the Champs-Elysees. So, we got to see lots of police.

          French police are armed and have always been armed. In fact, it was a common sight to see the Gendarmerie walking along in full tactical body armor with rifles on foot patrol (especially in places such as the airport, Notre Dame, and museums such as the Louvre). I snapped lots of photos of the police, partly because I was thinking if the police patrolled here in the US like that, people would go “ballistic” and freak out seeing rifles! NOBODY there even bats an eye. They were often driving around in vehicles in groups of four, with rifles!

          Right now, we really don’t have any facts regarding this incident. Usually at the end of a shift, when everyone on your team is writing reports at HQ or your substation, we typically take off our duty belts (who wants to sit in chairs for hours with all that stuff jabbing into your kidney’s). I typically would place my duty weapon into a paddle holster and continue to wear it on my inner belt, but not everyone is like that. It’s not your coworkers that you expect to stab you in the back (in this case literally, and okay, yes I guess some do figuratively stab you in the back, just like any other job) when you are finishing up your shift. This attack could have been in a similar environment, but I really wouldn’t say by any stretch that the French police are a “soft target.” They are all issued Sig P2022 pistols. I found out when talking to a cop over there that the P2022 is supposed to be the year they retire them and go to something else, hence the special designation they were given at the time of implementation. They were put into service in the early 2000’s for both police organizations. They looked like the Sig Pro from that era.

          Towards the end of our trip, we were in the UK for a bit visiting some friends. The UK is a different story. I actually did feel safer inside of France (still wish I could have carried), especially constantly running into rifle-equipped police. Watching the majority of the police in Scotland and Whales running around without any sort of firearm was pretty unnerving to say the least.

          • it was a common sight to see the Gendarmerie walking along in full tactical body armor with rifles on foot patrol…They were often driving around in vehicles in groups of four, with rifles!

            Do you think this is their 24/7/365 routine or was this unusual solely because of the yellow vest unrest?

            • The weekday stuff around all the areas I mentioned is routine. Unlike here, where protestors are typically paid pawns without normal jobs and attorney’s of groups on the sidelines filming looking for police brutality for years of city municipal settlements and payouts, the yellow vest protestors were working class people upset about their money being stolen from them for the environment. They all work throughout the week, hence the reason it only occurred on Saturdays. I actually asked our tour guide this very question you just asked, and he said that what we were seeing throughout the week was “normal.” Even that Wednesday when we were visiting Versailles (about an hour train trip from Paris), I noticed the Gendarmerie patrolling in groups of 4 in their SUV’s, all in full external body tactical body armor with rifles. They looked no different than our National Guard during deployment, except they were not wearing helmets while on patrol.

              On the following Saturday, when heading to the airport through the Champs-Elysees, we saw the police getting ready in full riot gear. It looked no different than anything you would see here in the US.

              • Wow, even Israel isn’t that bad. Normally. My wife and I were there a few years ago (2014 I think) and police presence was what I would call typical, like here in the US.

                Until the weekend when the Palestinian bus driver hung himself and they accused the Israelis of murder. Then things changed, as the youth of today would say, with the quickness. Full battle rattle, pistols, rifles, and street sweepers. I had never seen those before.

        • Israel is still on our list of places to visit. I hope to go over there sometime in the next 2-4 years.

          The Palais de Justice where this took place was on our tour and you can go in as a visitor. Metal detectors at most places (such as the Louvre) are a joke, and even our tour guide told us to just “drop only your wallet in the tray, beep and walk through, and gather your wallet or other random object you put in there.” I took video of the security at the Louvre, because it was quite entertaining watching the woman sitting on a chair waiving everyone through as the detectors constantly beeped.

          The Palais de Justice was a different story. Our guide warned us that it is the only stop with security we would be at where it was taken extremely seriously. Armed police ran it, and a few had rifles.

          I’m still guessing (obviously knowing that a day after we know NOTHING about what really happened) that this happened somewhere inside amongst your “buddies” where it shouldn’t happen. They were literally “stabbed in the back” by a fellow employee.

          The only unarmed police I’m aware of are some small towns and their “police municipale.” I never saw them when there, but they are not in Paris. Last year, they were looking at arming all of the small police municipale forces 24/7. Obviously, they have nothing to do with this incident.

        • @California Richard:
          I’ve only been to France once about 44 years ago on business. But I remember that the first thing I saw when I got off the plane in Bordeaux was a French cop carrying a rifle.

  6. Imagine that, converts to islam and goes on a murderous rampage. Why are they still calling it the ‘religion of peace’? Guess he could ask for asylum in Minneapolis, they’re all about ‘diversity’ hires.

    • Just like the French they expect us to surrender without even a pretense of resistance. In fact that would make us racist Nazis.

    • Libertarians want open borders. And call people racists who don’t want them. Just like the Democrats.

  8. A knife in the hands of an aggressive person is a fearful weapon. And knives are universally available.

    “What can I get without a waiting period that will kill a man?”

    “Anything from aisle 3.”

      • I recently celebrated my 25th Silver Anniversary with the best woman ever. I guess it doesn’t turn out so well for some, apparently…

        • I kid, happily married 10 years and counting.

          But that doesn’t mean she isn’t going to be the death of me.

    • An old man was arrested in Scotland last year for carrying a simple potato peeler “without reasonable excuse”.

      https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2018/05/03/scottish-man-custody-carrying-potato-peeler-public-place/

      Geez…even Kalifornia isn’t that bad. I carry a full knife on my every day, everywhere, and a few days ago I had a polite conversation with a man walking his dog. The guy had a large knife in a leather sheath on his hip, which is also still legal in SoCal. Nobody around us cared about it, and we parted and went about our day.

      • I Haz a Question,

        I live in a shall-issue concealed carry license state. And yet my state considers it a felony if I walk around with a large knife on my person (concealed or openly visible). My state only allows us to carry knives with blades that are 3 inches or shorter, and they cannot be double-edge blades, dirks, or daggers. And we cannot carry anything that could be a “weapon” other than a handgun. That means we cannot carry blackjacks, batons (including telescoping batons), brass knuckles, or just about anything else besides a handgun.

        • Interesting. I was just at a sporting store yesterday and almost bought a collapsible baton, and paused only because I hadn’t brought enough cash with me. Maybe next time. I liked the shortest one because it’ll fit nicely under an outer shirt or jacket. Due to the widespread SoCal tradition of walking, jogging, hiking, or biking, many times with dogs, everyone expects to have something to defend against the occasional rogue dog that gets off its leash. I myself have been attacked and bitten more than once by rogue dogs that got away from their owners.

          In CA, you can carry a fixed blade openly if it’s sheathed, or any length folding blade (open or concealed) as long as it’s folded when concealed. Double-blades such as dirks and daggers, no. Nearly every man I know in my circle family and friends carries a folding flip-open knife, and many (such as myself) have small EDC flashlights, too. There are so many knives around you at any time that nobody tries anything funny, and nobody cares. Imagine if guns were as ubiquitous.

        • I was waiting for someone to catch the intentional goof I put in my comment above from yesterday, but looks like nobody did. Maybe nobody’s reading my comments? (cry, sigh) 🙂

          In CA it’s illegal for non-LE to even possess a “baton”. Believe it or not, a baseball bat in your car can be (and has been) interpreted as a baton weapon, subject to arrest and charges. Everyone here knows that if you carry a bat in your back seat for self defense (in lieu of a gun or other more suitable weapon), you have to toss a baseball glove and hat on the floor next to it so a cop cannot claim it’s not sporting equipment. Yes, this is a true thing.

          In addition to my guns, I also carry a small bat in my vehicle anyway.

    • ….Expect in The People’s Republic of China…That of course, has “Knife 🔪 Control…Just gives another idea in waiting for Demo-Authoritarians…The Socialist French will do anything to censor THEIR Liberal news to prevent any current leakage that this guy was a “converted suicide jihadist…” Gone an Islamic religious experience of “killing infidels…” (Re: Diversity , yo….)

    • Remember France, like many countries, has many officers that aren’t armed. France has increased its number of armed officers in recent years due to repeated terrorist attacks, but there’s still many police who are unarmed. Also you can figure this guy worked there, so he was probably trusted by the victims, and he had the element of surprise.

    • French police do not take their sidearms home with them at night. All weapons are turned in and issued at the office at the beginning and end of each day.

      As far as I know every other European nation including England does this as well.

      The bottom line is in general the European police are disarmed.

  10. Oh well. In a gendarme station too. Convert to Mo-ham-adizzy? BTW I just now took my son to our moose-lim dentist. Dr. Issa. Ya’never know😫And the po-leece en Francais likely weren’t carrying. Remember the attack on the so-called satirical magazine a few years ago? Unarmed sheep…

    • Guns are only issued to police until a time when they face an armed criminal. During the rest of their Duty day while walking their patrols the police are unarmed.

      • You’re a retard spreading falsehoods. The UK is the only place in Europe where EVERY patrol officer isn’t always armed. French police carry more firepower on average than any American police force. Rifles and full kit are literally everywhere.

        • No you’re the lying retard. During the Charlie hedbo attack the French officer begging for his life was unarmed. You lying retarded luberals couldn’t get a fact straight to save your bootyhole.

    • My Asus tells me I need net framework. So, I get it, and attempt to install it.

      No matter what I try, it *refuses* to install. Worse, now it refuses to update windows for “critical security updates”.

      Motherfuckingcock-suckingsonofamotherfuckingbitch!

      I’m sure any day now I’ll get bit by one of those ‘ransom’ viruses and get all my adult movies *cough* locked up tight. Good thing I back them up externally… 🙂

      • Your Asus is one of their laptops I assume?

        I use their motherboards pretty much exclusively in my builds.

        • Yeah, those people are retarded.

          8.1 is gonna test my memory here. I basically skipped the entire 8.x thing because 8.0 was a dumpster fire IMHO.

          So, IIRC 8.1 should come with .NET 4.5.1 but regardless of what I’ve read about it the .NET framework and how great it is IME updates can be really finicky even after 3.0. The Web Updaters will say something like ‘…in-place update to Microsoft .NET Framework 4, 4.5, 4.5.1, 4.5.2, 4.6, 4.6.1, 4.6.2, 4.7, and 4.7.1.” but they don’t always work for every version listed. In fact, Microsoft admits this in a roundabout way when they tell you that a certain file will work for Windows 1709 but note 1703 if you’re missing running 4.7 because that file will update everything for 1703 EXCEPT .NET Framework 4.7. The web updater is supposed to query your machine and figure out what file(s) you need but IME this is kinda hit or miss.

          So if it’s refusing to install it’s possible that you need a specific update for that version of the framework and your specific build of Windows. Since I dunno what updates might have been run at what times or whatever give you a few links to try to troubleshoot this. And hopefully I don’t give you a bunch of shit that’s not properly aliased in more modern versions of PSH since Win 8.x came with PSH 3.0 IIRC.

          1) Determine your version of Windows including the build. Go to your command line/PSH and type ‘systeminfo’ which will return a bunch of information.

          Line 3 or so should be ‘OS Version’ It will say something like ‘8.1.12345 N/A Build 12345’

          Then follow this set of instructions based on your knowledge/set up/situation to figure out what version of the framework you’re running and which, if any, updates are installed. Ignore the scripts they’ve put in there… well unless you wanna copy them into ISE and fuck around.

          https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/framework/migration-guide/how-to-determine-which-versions-are-installed

          Once you have your .NET framework version nailed down and your version/build of Windows go look around on the Microsoft site for an update specific to that combination and use that. It *should* then install the update.

          Note, you might have to do this a couple of times to get to the more modern versions of the framework, I’ve had to do that before with jumping from like 4.5 —> 4.5.2 —> 4.6.2—>4.7.

          Pay attention to the NOTES that they provide.

          Also here’s a post from one of their devs with a list of the catalog files you might want/need if things go to shit for you.

          It’s a PITA, but if it saves one tentacle…

  16. In all seriousness an attacker could suddenly strike anywhere, even in a supposedly “secure” environment. And even if armed security onsite can respond within 30 seconds, that is still far too long, especially when my response time is about 2 seconds.

    And before anyone poo-poos my point, think about how many people you could slash/stab in that 28 additional seconds it would take armed security personnel onsite to show up. If you answer honestly, the answer is at least 10 people and quite possibly many more.

  17. The article mentioned he used a ceramic knife. Did the Police HQ have metal detectors?

    We have to do something about these ghost knives.

    • Palais de Justice certainly does have metal detectors. I don’t know if they make their employees go through them, but I know for sure they have them.

  18. That literally is a joke about govt incompetence: the only place where a murderous criminal can mass murder cops? Literally: at a police HQ. ‘Cause that’s where they all gather.

    xD

    or is it a joke about the French?? xD

  19. To misquote Gomer Pyle, Surprise, Surprise, Surprise????? Were they like some NCIS agents and others I see on T.V. with guns in frigging DRAWERS? And I don’t mean any kind of pants, which is where the damned thing should be when you’re on duty. Why? See the news article.

    • Timothy
      As mentioned above there are several types of police in Paris. Most municipal police in the neat, traditional uniforms are totally unarmed. They are there to look good and send lost tourists in the right direction.

      Most national police officers are armed. Like any large force with mix of uniformed and plainclothes.

      The far end of the scale is the national riot police who often end protests just by showing up. Not many of them but as well armed or better than most armies. The usual groups accuse them of atrocities and are constantly trying to get them disbanded.

  20. No warning signs except for things like that “Death to all infidels!” t-shirt…. and yelling Allahu Akhbar…. and…

    • Any decapitation videos on their work computer? That should be an obvious sign.

      And no-one is more over-zealous than a recent convert.

  23. The French police call the police in an emergency. Only with a caveat stating “bring a gun this time.”

  24. He was a deaf- mute:

    “The assailant, who could not speak or hear, was shot by an officer with a rifle, according to two police sources who spoke to NBC News on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press.

    A high ranking police source with knowledge of the investigation told NBC News that the attacker was a man named Mickael H., who lived in a suburb outside Paris and converted to Islam 18 months ago.”

  25. Until 2018 the French were allowed to convert semi-autos to full auto with the proper paperwork. They are still allowed to own semi-auto weapons but their vetting is very, very thorough on all firearms purchases and you must also have a hunting license or sport shooting license to qualify to get a gun. The mentally ill attacker obviously was prevented from getting a firearm so he only killed 4 people with a knife not dozens of people with a firearm. In the Charlie Hebdo and French Theater attacks those people were terrorists that were supplied with firearms and training from a Middle East Country. No domestic gun laws would have prevented what was essentially an act of war. Since the French people are not allowed to carry guns for self-protection it was easy for the terrorists to kill many people. This is one of their gun laws that should be rescinded. The French so far have been reluctant to do so as they still believe that citizens being allowed to carry guns for self protection would result in too many firearms homicides from heat of the moment disputes. It is the same philosophy in many European countries, if you are granted a permit for a gun you cannot carry it and you must keep it locked up at home and you must belong to a shooting club or have a hunting license.

    In France wild pigeon shooting is so popular many workers take and entire month off from work to go hunting as their vacation time is very generous. Many workers get as much as 4 weeks or more of vacation and all get around an additional 30 days of paid holidays. Most use semi-auto shotguns for wild pigeon hunting. Pigeons are considered very good eating.

    • “Many workers get as much as 4 weeks or more of vacation and all get around an additional 30 days of paid holidays. Most use semi-auto shotguns for wild pigeon hunting.”

      Wow, that socialist government seems really repressive. In the USA, we’re lucky to get maybe five or six holidays and a week or two of vacation

      But those socialists in France are repressing the workers by forcing them to take three or four weeks of vacation and 30 paid holidays.

      And clearly, the socialists won’t allow the citizens to own any guns, except for those semi autos they’re using to go hunting.

      Yes, I guess all the right wingers are correct, socialism is very bad for the workers.

      Hey, wait a minute…

      • Move there if you think it’s so great. Yeah, it’s a pretty simplistic reply, but what more needs to be said?

        Keep in mind, however, that most countries (aside from our own, for some reason) have pretty high standards for citizenship, so you might not qualify.

        • No, I’d rather stay here and make America treat our workers as well as France does.

          We’ve all star focus on the individual, mini believe the constitution supports big business. In fact, the word corporation is not in the US Constitution, it was a creation of an activist judge.

          The constitution’s main focus is to protect individuals, not to guarantee a profit to a business enterprise.

      • Socialism is great if you’re the bottom 3rd of a nations underachievers. If you’re willing to work hard, innovate and reach high, not so much. I’ve talked to countless folk from places like Germany, Sweden and France who came here because they felt like they were being held back and their rights set aside to benefit the slackers.

        Fortunately the US is undergoing a sea change as we speak. 50 years of attempted socialism and it is all being undone by the ‘squad’ and the #orangemanbad.

        If you are a true socialist and not just a troll you must be weeping at your loss.

        • Well, I ain’t no loser and I ain’t no weeper.

          Actually, I celebrate the triumph of socialism in its most basic form, Social Security. Thanks to FDR, millions of Americans have been saved from a life of poverty or not so golden years by the social safety net of social security.

          And I’m loving our socialized fire protection, where every citizen pays their fair share to support society’s need for fire protection.

          Same goes for police, highways, libraries, the jurisprudence system, etc, all supported by society’s members chipping in to lift up every member.

      • Higher unemployment rates and the simple fact that many blue collar and professional class french have to work in the United States demonstrates all is not to rosy.

        Man, nobody is a harsher critic of the insane idiocy that is capitalism than me, but you socialists crack me up as naive, stupid children.

  26. So does anyone know if French beat cops are always armed like American ones? Or are they more like the British police: Mostly unarmed, but with armed specialist units to deal with emergencies. I haven’t found any news articles talk about this. If they are armed like America cops are, it’s kind of odd the guy was able to kill so many in a police station with just a knife.

    • Like many other European countries, the police in France are heavy on administrative roles, so the number of actual police officers (much less ones who are armed) in the building was probably pretty low.

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