There has been the usual mix of resigned reactions and utterly vile apologism in English language media globally today to news that 3,000 Italian soldiers are patrolling Rome, Naples & Milan with that states police in the latest measure to "stop crime" which according to Berlusconi and crew is all caused by illegal migrants, gypsies or people who carry the gene for premature balding yet inexplicably still have a full head of virile hairy hair.
Oh yes. Especially those ones.
For so long people used the wicked word "Fascist" to describe the Italian right that it has now lost all its proper power to shock. What next they asked too many times.
So we no longer read the question marks after Camps? Striped Pyjamas? Caged Ghettoes?
Oh yes. Especially those ones.
For so long people used the wicked word "Fascist" to describe the Italian right that it has now lost all its proper power to shock. What next they asked too many times.
So we no longer read the question marks after Camps? Striped Pyjamas? Caged Ghettoes?
When states choose to deploy troops in support of law enforcement it is often worth considering what type of soldiery are chosen to do the job. Being Irish, I suppose my political cultural background helps a little on this one.
Today the New York Times carried photographs and reports of Paratroopers guarding the diplomatic mission quarter of Rome. Paratroopers are trained to engage in complicated military actions which often as the name suggests occur after jumping out of a moving airplane. This is considerably more dangerous than jumping out of a stationary airplane. Although Military forces sometimes (& not nearly enough times) perform humanitarian operations using parachutes and moving aircraft they do not attach Paratroopers to the dropped food, antibiotics or water. Not a bit of it. The lot of a Paratrooper is that of a supposedly elite regiment member who can not only land in the dark, fold his (or her) parachute neatly whilst carrying upwards of 40 kg of "kit" but start shooting at the same time. Paratroopers are very good example of war-trained soldiers. They are not nor ever have been taught how to deal softly with the public. That's why the deployment of British paratroopers played such a key role in understanding the massacre of Derry's Bloody Sunday in 1972.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloody_Sunday_%281972%29
The Italian paratroop regiment reported to be walking around Rome today has most recently served in Lebanon and before that took part in Operation Babalon in Iraq.
Not exactly community policing. Indeed their role in peace-keeping duties was tarnished by the revelations by the British TV documentary "Panorama" (1997) that they had tortured and abused prisoners and women in Somalia where they had been ironically stationed under "Operation Restore Hope".
http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brigata_Paracadutisti_Folgore
So I suppose many people who think that there are two sides to all this, & if the Italians feel happy with soldiers on their streets, what of it - might I suggest that there are other ways to deal with criminal element of Italy's society, those who though carrying the gene for premature pattern balding still rather inexplicably have a full head of virile hairy hair.
a) fetch these people together in piazas and in between offering the troops cups of cappucino & explaining the difference between Italian catholics and protestants to them - shave the heads of the malefactors and then tar them.
b) look to the recent past of only two summers ago & remember the leftwing mayor of Padova's solution.
Oh but you've no idea what I'm talking about.
read on.
August 2006, Favio Zanonato the mayor of Padova, Italy elected as a social democrat [ not a pro-Berlusconi fascist ] astounded rights groups worldwide and provoked polemic indignation in his own city with what he termed a "temporary measure" [which lasted for close to a year]. A "troublesome" neighbourhood and its core complex of flats were home to marginalised migrant groups and native Italian poor with high instances of drug use and sale were walled up overnight.
Construction workers arrived without prior warning and erected in one day a security fence of 4 milimetre thick steel fencing and 3 metres high around the flats.
Only one entrance or exit was left where residents and visitors alike had to submit to searches by the police before passing through.
Oh but he had good excuses - The flat complex had been scene to a drug related feud between Nigerian and north Africans in July of 2006 with a police seizure of 125 grammes of cocaine resulting. But no ninja stars or wetsuits.
The Italian press and the social democrats made comparisons to the Bronx of the infamous past of NYC. However, the Bronx never saw a steel wall erected. The ease with which such a measure occured ought have worried people worldwide. Of course it did worry some. But the Italian right who thought it was all "window-dressing" and an attempt to steal their grassroots support chose to shelve their criticisms.
http://www.rai.it/news/articolornews24/0,9219,4359691,00.html
http://www.adnkronos.com/3Level.php?cat=Cronaca&loid=1.0.519597457
http://www.ilgiornale.it/a.pic1?ID=110711
http://www.corriere.it/Primo_Piano/Cronache/2006/08_Agosto/07/fumagalli.shtml
http://quotidianonet.ilsole24ore.com/archivio_art.php?art=http://qn.quotidiano.net/2006/08/14/pages/artI5430199.html
Eventually tired of waiting at their little hole in the ghetto wall, the police under the order of a social democrat playing the law & order card went and took out 11 tunisians, 9 moroccans, 3 algerians, 1 lebanese and 1 syrian, gave them pyjamas, sent them off into the illegal human system (where who knows maybe they still are writing novels) yet
not one person with the gene for premature pattern balding with inexplicable hairy hair was reported as being found.
Obviously the Italians are resolute.
They will get to the root of the problem.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/05/world/europe/05italy.html?ref=world
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gU9n4TYN4fvtzT2fPx78H8RsZB-A
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2008/0804/breaking55.htm
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,3537732,00.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7543019.stm
Today the New York Times carried photographs and reports of Paratroopers guarding the diplomatic mission quarter of Rome. Paratroopers are trained to engage in complicated military actions which often as the name suggests occur after jumping out of a moving airplane. This is considerably more dangerous than jumping out of a stationary airplane. Although Military forces sometimes (& not nearly enough times) perform humanitarian operations using parachutes and moving aircraft they do not attach Paratroopers to the dropped food, antibiotics or water. Not a bit of it. The lot of a Paratrooper is that of a supposedly elite regiment member who can not only land in the dark, fold his (or her) parachute neatly whilst carrying upwards of 40 kg of "kit" but start shooting at the same time. Paratroopers are very good example of war-trained soldiers. They are not nor ever have been taught how to deal softly with the public. That's why the deployment of British paratroopers played such a key role in understanding the massacre of Derry's Bloody Sunday in 1972.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloody_Sunday_%281972%29 The Italian paratroop regiment reported to be walking around Rome today has most recently served in Lebanon and before that took part in Operation Babalon in Iraq.
Not exactly community policing. Indeed their role in peace-keeping duties was tarnished by the revelations by the British TV documentary "Panorama" (1997) that they had tortured and abused prisoners and women in Somalia where they had been ironically stationed under "Operation Restore Hope".
http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brigata_Paracadutisti_Folgore So I suppose many people who think that there are two sides to all this, & if the Italians feel happy with soldiers on their streets, what of it - might I suggest that there are other ways to deal with criminal element of Italy's society, those who though carrying the gene for premature pattern balding still rather inexplicably have a full head of virile hairy hair.
a) fetch these people together in piazas and in between offering the troops cups of cappucino & explaining the difference between Italian catholics and protestants to them - shave the heads of the malefactors and then tar them.
b) look to the recent past of only two summers ago & remember the leftwing mayor of Padova's solution.
Oh but you've no idea what I'm talking about.
read on.
August 2006, Favio Zanonato the mayor of Padova, Italy elected as a social democrat [ not a pro-Berlusconi fascist ] astounded rights groups worldwide and provoked polemic indignation in his own city with what he termed a "temporary measure" [which lasted for close to a year]. A "troublesome" neighbourhood and its core complex of flats were home to marginalised migrant groups and native Italian poor with high instances of drug use and sale were walled up overnight.
Construction workers arrived without prior warning and erected in one day a security fence of 4 milimetre thick steel fencing and 3 metres high around the flats.
Only one entrance or exit was left where residents and visitors alike had to submit to searches by the police before passing through.
Oh but he had good excuses - The flat complex had been scene to a drug related feud between Nigerian and north Africans in July of 2006 with a police seizure of 125 grammes of cocaine resulting. But no ninja stars or wetsuits.
The Italian press and the social democrats made comparisons to the Bronx of the infamous past of NYC. However, the Bronx never saw a steel wall erected. The ease with which such a measure occured ought have worried people worldwide. Of course it did worry some. But the Italian right who thought it was all "window-dressing" and an attempt to steal their grassroots support chose to shelve their criticisms.
http://www.rai.it/news/articolornews24/0,9219,4359691,00.html http://www.adnkronos.com/3Level.php?cat=Cronaca&loid=1.0.519597457 http://www.ilgiornale.it/a.pic1?ID=110711 http://www.corriere.it/Primo_Piano/Cronache/2006/08_Agosto/07/fumagalli.shtml http://quotidianonet.ilsole24ore.com/archivio_art.php?art=http://qn.quotidiano.net/2006/08/14/pages/artI5430199.html Eventually tired of waiting at their little hole in the ghetto wall, the police under the order of a social democrat playing the law & order card went and took out 11 tunisians, 9 moroccans, 3 algerians, 1 lebanese and 1 syrian, gave them pyjamas, sent them off into the illegal human system (where who knows maybe they still are writing novels) yet
not one person with the gene for premature pattern balding with inexplicable hairy hair was reported as being found.
Obviously the Italians are resolute.
They will get to the root of the problem.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/05/world/europe/05italy.html?ref=world http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gU9n4TYN4fvtzT2fPx78H8RsZB-A http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2008/0804/breaking55.htm http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,3537732,00.html http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7543019.stm
