But the distrust in the government and police cannot be blamed on the ignorance of these citizens; rather, it should be 'credited' to the 'fine reputation' that the Paris police had slowly accumulated over the past half-century.
After all, from any reasonable person's perspective, it would be very difficult to trust a group of individuals who have, in the past, shot at you, cannonaded you, swung swords at you, and routinely extorted you.
In this way, as the Paris police's denials of the rumors grew more fervent, the increasingly skeptical Parisian populace became more and more convinced of the existence of poisoning incidents.
Action was taken en masse, with vigilantes at pubs, pools, markets, and crossroads monitoring and interrogating anyone suspected of poisoning. Such behaviors also led to many bloody incidents on the streets of Paris, in which numerous innocents were suspected, beaten, and even murdered.
Heine depicted such phenomena in the letter he sent to Arthur.
