French police have detained 12 suspects after 145 people reported being pricked with syringes during the country's annual street music festival, officials said Sunday.

Millions of people took to the streets across France on Saturday evening for the Fete de la Musique, with authorities reporting "unprecedented crowds" in Paris.

Before the party, posts on social media had called for women to be targeted during the festivities.

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[–] 29 points 1 year ago (27 children)

This is a panic that has come and gone multiple times even just during my lifetime. I remember the first time I heard about it was visitors to neighboring Tijuana with HIV infected blood on the 80s. Never once has it actually been confirmed to have happened.

These are 145 self reports. Nothing confirmed. No video evidence.

Plenty of resources available for this panic.

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  • [+] 24 points 1 year ago* (1 child)
  • [–] 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

    Confirming that arrests have been made.

    Very easy for police to grab random people out of a music festival and throw them in jail.

    These social panic stories, in which unnamed sources make nonfalsifiable claims that result in some number of uninvestigated allegations and a series of possibly unrelated arrests stinks of Satanic Panic or Razorblades In the Halloween Candy or Haitian Immigrants are Eating Our Dogs, or any number of other news stories built on gossip.

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  • [–] 27 points 1 year ago (6 children)

    Of course the 145 police reports don't count. This is 145 women were talking about.

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  • [–] -1 points 1 year ago (4 children)

    Anyone can file a police report. And if they believe they were a victim then they are more likely to do that.

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  • [–] 0 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    So they just imagined it, is that what you are saying?

    And this info is based upon what exactly?

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  • [+] 3 points 1 year ago (16 children)
  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago (15 children)

    I'm saying that in the past every incidence or this has been alleged turned out to be mass panic. And at today's age of constant video surveillance there would be evidence, not just reports. So either this is the very first case in the world where this is actually true and we will find that out through the evidence or we're going to find out that it's not true and then it matches all the previous events. But police reports do not make something real.

    I'm asking people to look at the evidence.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (8 children)

    145 women speaking up is evidence of this happening

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  • [–] 7 points 1 year ago (5 children)

    145 people that think something happened isn't evidence. Every case in the past had lots of people absolutely convinced it happened.

    So let's take this to the next step. There is video surveillance because every venue does these days. They pull the video. They watch the video. They follow the movements of every person. They see who bumped into who. If the video shows one or more people ranging too far to too many people and getting close when there is plenty of space and shows them dumping the evidence then we have actual proof that backs up the claims. Toxicology tests were performed. We find that there is something in the blood that shouldn't be there.

    You and each of the others here that are absolutely convinced that this time is the one time in history that this actually happened get vindicated.

    But what if the video doesn't show it? What if the toxicology is completely normal? Are you going to regret being so absolutely sure? Are you going to come back here and say "okay, I was wrong."

    I'm asking that you wait until the evidence is evaluated to make a decision. Reports aren't proof. Evidence is proof. And given the history of this type of claim a little proof before judgment is absolutely warranted.

    This also happened in France in 2022. People were detained, preliminary charges filed. And then the cases vanished. Not great reports of convictions. No "there is nothing to worry about, the criminals have he brought to justice."

    In this current case they have arrested maybe a dozen. If they are guilty then throw the book at them. But the guilty should come only after the evidence has been evaluated. And a report is not evidence. That's suspicion.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago

    This is a good response. And I did read the wiki you shared. In regards to video evidence, this festival had a lot of non-venue performances, I just don't know where the people were when they said they'd been poked. Also, it's easier to prove this than disprove it. For example if the tox report is negative then maybe theres something that wasn't texted for, or maybe the point is fear. People could be going around with pins rather than syringes. Of course no evidence means no conviction, and some people doubting what they thought they experienced. For me 145 people claiming something happened is evidence that something happened. (Ranging from 145 hallucinating or colluding all the way to 145 being targeted by a nefarious needle gang.)

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  • [+] -2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (5 children)
  • [–] 0 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    So guilty until proven innocent? Just lock up random people based on vague memories when drunk?

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

    Last time I heard about this it was all over Facebook and shit.

    Then the government, police and drs came out and said there was no evidence and when you think about it it doesn't make any sense.

    Honestly how many women have you seen smash way way too many drinks and claim they got spiked. No you weigh fuck all, you were smashing drinks, thats why you can't stand. We've all drank too much.

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