Samuel Paty, autopsy of a macabre domino effect

Monday opened in Paris the trial of eight people judged for having fueled the hate campaign which led to the assassination of Samuel Paty. The history and geography professor taught in a college in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, in the Yvelines department, west of the French capital. He was 47 years old when a terrorist beheaded him in the street after school on October 16, 2020.

“Le cours de monsieur Paty” was released four years to the day after this act of barbarism. In her book, Mickaëlle Paty, one of Samuel’s sisters, recounts the untold. “The assassination of my brother shocked us all,” she wrote straight away. She remembers, clinically, this text message from her mother received at 8:04 p.m. The phone call that followed, from her father whom she hears crying, even though the police have not yet called.

With the support of novelist and screenwriter Emilie Frèche, Mickaëlle Paty rewinds. She imagines her brother giving his course on freedom of expression and showing the caricatures from “Charlie Hebdo”, he who had secularism firmly in his heart. In her story, she cites the recommendations of the national information and support portal for education professionals. It also recalls the context of this month of October 2020: that of the trials of the attacks against the French satirical newspaper.

Anatomy of a cabal

Then she carefully dissects – the chapter is entitled “Anatomy of a cabal” – the elements which led to the assassination of the history and geography professor. The facts established, Mickaëlle Paty accuses. The colleagues who broke away, the failings of the administration, the political failures, the State which did not ensure the protection of his brother despite the obvious signs of the danger he was in. The sister also reproduces, in her book, documents, such as Samuel Paty’s course.

As a counterpoint to this book, you have to listen the podcast in eight episodes – plus a prologue – produced by France Inter and released last September. In just over four hours, “Samuel Paty, school in the face of terrorism” pays tribute to the professor through testimonies from relatives, colleagues, students and parents of students.

The sound documentary above all exposes the perverse mechanics which led to the tragedy. He reminds us that it all starts with a student’s lie that no one dares to undo. It shows how the rumor spread on social networks, and how this “boobard” then escapes all control. The podcast clearly dissects the process of instrumentalization and its fatal outcome, on October 16, 2020.

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