Affaire Merah: itinéraire d'un tueur [in French]

A few days ago in France, a documentary was broadcast about the Mohammed Merah jihad killing spree. Titled "Affaire Merah : itinéraire d'un tueur" [Merah case: itinerary of a killer], it brought some crucial information to light. Recall that Merah committed two attacks on soldiers then a final attack on a Jewish school. After the first two attacks, the investigators pursued the hypothesis that one of the soldiers had been targeted based on a motorcycle advertisement he had placed on the internet. The investigators tracked down everyone who had accessed that advert. The only two occasions on which it had been accessed from Toulouse were both from Mohammed Merah's mother's computer. Merah was already known to the French intelligence services as an Islamic radical. Based on this constellation of facts, a recommendation was made that Mohammed Merah be arrested. But it was disregarded.

Bernard Squarcini, then head of intelligence was recommending Merah's arrest from 18 March, the day before the massacre at the Jewish school.

But the judicial police are said not to have followed it up, focused on the far-right line of investigation.

Source: Affaire Merah : itinéraire d'un tueur   [12th minute]

So if Merah had been arrested when the recommendation was issued, the massacre at the school could have been prevented.

Sometimes we hear people saying that 'political correctness' is just a matter of harmless politeness. But that's not true. There are many instances, like this one, where it can be shown that the establishment's obsession with demonising "the right" and screening out awkward facts about people of non-European origin can be the cause of extraordinary harm. If this is "politeness", it is politeness leaving a trail of dead bodies in its wake.