Cultural Enrichment in Paris

A report from France, kindly translated by regular Gates of Vienna reader and commenter Robert Marchenoir:

Paris, June 26, 2009 — A 31-year old woman has been arrested in Paris because she is suspected of stabbing a passenger who was too slow to get out of a Metro carriage.

The incident, reported by police headquarters, happened on June 19th around 8.30 p.m., at the Gare du Nord station on line n°4 [Gare du Nord is one of Paris main railway stations].

The woman, of Haitian descent, who was travelling with her partner, struck a 56-year old man in the chest with a kitchen knife, slightly wounding him. She complained because she thought he was too slow to step out of the carriage.

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Using CCTV images, the regional transport police were able to identify and arrest the woman on Wednesday. She is well-known to the police. [This cookie-cutter formula usually refers, in the media, to repeat offenders guilty of regular assaults, robberies or drug dealing, who are seldom if ever convicted, either through lack of evidence or judges’ leniency.] At the time she was arrested, she was hiding a kitchen knife in her underwear.

She was taken into custody and was expected to be presented to the public prosecutor on Friday.