Citizen patrols hit Italy streets

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8291187.stm
Spoiler :

Duncan Kennedy
BBC News, Rome

'We are the new right wing'

The first, legal, citizens' patrols have appeared on the streets of Italy.

Supporters say the patrols will enable ordinary people to help police carry out their role of protecting neighbourhoods.

But opponents have argued the groups are no more than vigilantes, many of which are being set up in areas with high immigrant populations.


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National Guard citizens' patrols walk the streets

The city of Messina is one place where they are thriving.

It is a landing point for the island of Sicily and starting point for the most controversial versions of these citizens' patrols.

Here they are called the National Guard.

Others have different names.

The National Guard claims to have around 2,500 members across Italy.

Like the others, it does not have powers of arrest, but the Guard does have a uniform, which is as striking as the group itself.

It consists of khaki shirts, black caps featuring an eagle insignia and an armband with a black sun wheel as a logo.

'Under investigation'

It is the clothing that has earned them comparisons with Mussolini's infamous black shirt volunteer militia, which terrorised opponents in the 1930s, and helped the fascist dictator maintain power.

The new group's uniforms are so provocative, that at least one authority - in Milan - has placed them under investigation.

But the inquiry into whether their uniforms contravene Italy's laws banning Nazi and fascist insignia, has not stopped them beginning their patrols.


With her fellow members, she marches around central Messina, eliciting from passersby a flurry of looks that range from bemused indifference, to mild alarm.

During a break, Miss Cannizzaro volunteered her stark assessment of who is behind Italy's crime wave.

"It's immigrants," she said. "The majority of immigrants are drug dealers or prostitutes.

"It would be better for them to be in their country and helped there. It's useless for them to come here."

The foot soldier in heels said: "The streets in Italy are not safe, especially in big cities like Rome where people going home are getting attacked and raped".

Her views on black and Jewish people would be actionable, if printed here.

Reassuring or alarming?

The Italian government insists these patrol groups are under control.

It says they cannot act on their own: They must call in the police if they see trouble.

Mobile phones, not jackboots, are supposed to be their weapon of choice.

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Head of the National Guard Gaetano Saya denies being a fascist
One female shopper said: "I find them reassuring, I'm more secure with them."

But another woman said: "I prefer the police to maintain law and order."

The National Guard is headed by Gaetano Saya, who, having promised to meet us in Messina, failed to show up.

The closest we came to him was his video posted on YouTube.

Wearing the now-familiar militia-style shirt, but this time adorned with a photo of the Italian hero Garibaldi pinned to his chest, he addresses the camera for several, animated minutes.

It is, by turns, a combination of rage, finger pointing and calm, if simplistic, political and sociological analysis of life in Italy.

It amounts to an exaltation of Italy as a place fit only for Italians. He is a patriot not a fascist, he insists.

Nazi-style salute

But in another video we saw, a more sinister side to this group is revealed.

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A man at a National Guard meeting makes a Nazi-style salute on camera
It is a shaky, handheld, recording of a meeting of the Guard. Towards the end a man stands up.

Inexplicably, the camera turns sideways, but there's no mistaking what happens.

The man makes a Nazi-style salute. His gesture is greeted with wild applause.

Opponents say entrusting security to citizens' patrols like the National Guard is a direct challenge to the rule of law.

They include Jean Leonard Touadi, born in the Democratic Republic of Congo and now a member of Italy's parliament who serves on its Justice committee.

"These patrols are an abdication of the responsibility of government," he said.

"You cannot privatise security...that is a dangerous path which could destroy democracy."

People patrol

Italy's new citizens' patrols do not all look like the National Guard.

Another branch, calling themselves Veneto Sicuro wear fluorescent jackets, for visibility, not effect, we're told.

They see themselves as true "ronde", a more benign Italian word for "patrol".

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The Veneto Sicuro wear very different outfits to the National Guard
The group look and feel unthreatening, a reassuring sight, even, in a country where crime levels genuinely worry many Italians.

Unlike some of the groups, this one doesn't maintain official ties with some of Italy's right-wing political parties, the kind that hold the most muscular views on immigration, like the Northern League.

The League is a vital coalition partner helping sustain the Prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, in office, a role never more important than now, following Mr Berlusconi's troubled summer of alleged sex scandals that have threatened to undermine his hold on power.

Some here believe Mr Berlusconi's acquiescence in the citizens patrol legislation was a price he had to pay for continued League support.

Now he and Italy have got their citizens' patrols.

And they are being viewed in one of two ways: either as an understandable reaction from a responsive government keen to do the publics bidding as it clamours for action on crime.

Or, as a more cynical search for popularity, even though the groups may play into the hands of some who are anti-assimilation bigots, energised by the corrosive allure of intolerance, rather than the progressive forces of integration.
What do people think? Is this an admirable expression of civic pride or frightening?

I recommend people watch the 1m30s clip in the article.

To me the groups presented seem to be motivated by racism and fascism.
 
Too much exposure to certain immigrant groups often does strange things to people.

edit: I can't see the video by the way. BBC has one of the most hopeless videoplayers on the interwebs.
 
Typical Eastern European tomfoolery.

Burlesconi did send out the freaking army to round up them illegals in Naples last year though, so this development is not really a surprise.
 
More importantly, will they actually take a stand against the entire culture or corruption that is pervasive in Italy? How do they do that by patrolling the streets?
 
More importantly, will they actually take a stand against the entire culture or corruption that is pervasive in Italy? How do they do that by patrolling the streets?

What, are they going to flip over spaghetti stands or something? It's much easier to pretend that it's those Africans or southern Italians (same thing LOL) causing all the problems.

If anything, this sounds like that minuteman organization they have near the Mexico-US border. Both are about the same levels of ridiculous.
 
What, are they going to flip over spaghetti stands or something? It's much easier to pretend that it's those Africans or southern Italians (same thing LOL) causing all the problems.

If anything, this sounds like that minuteman organization they have near the Mexico-US border. Both are about the same levels of ridiculous.

The entire idea of a spaghetti stand is hilarious. Like Italians eat spaghetti like Americans eat hot dogs.
 
During a break, Miss Cannizzaro volunteered her stark assessment of who is behind Italy's crime wave.

"It's immigrants," she said. "The majority of immigrants are drug dealers or prostitutes.

OH yeah.. awesome. :rolleyes:
 
If anything, this sounds like that minuteman organization they have near the Mexico-US border. Both are about the same levels of ridiculous.
You don't find militia groups with strong links to the far right forming and blaming everything from crime to unemployment on foreigners / outsiders during a recession troubling? It doesn't ring any bells from 20th century history?
 
I can't really comment more because I can't watch videos from where I am at. I did read everything though :)
Summary: A middle aged Italian woman who is leading one of these groups says she is not fascist but it is all the foreigners and Jews fault.
 
Did she really just say the "Italian race will soon be wiped out"?

Sweet Jesus.
 
Did she really just say the "Italian race will soon be wiped out"?

Sweet Jesus.

Italy is a geographical expression anyway, it will hardly be missed.

You don't find militia groups with strong links to the far right forming and blaming everything from crime to unemployment on foreigners / outsiders during a recession troubling? It doesn't ring any bells from 20th century history?

I don't think these citizen patrol groups in particular are very powerful. I think both of the groups I mentioned are all kinds of stupid, but I don't feel like pulling the godwynn card for every right wing paramilitary club that pops up.
 
The entire idea of a spaghetti stand is hilarious. Like Italians eat spaghetti like Americans eat hot dogs.

I enjoyed that - The image of Spaghetti flying all over the street :lol:


Summary: A middle aged Italian woman who is leading one of these groups says she is not fascist but it is all the foreigners and Jews fault.
:cringe: Here we go again :lol:



Did she really just say the "Italian race will soon be wiped out"?

Sweet Jesus.

Sweet Jesus indeed, Every time I hear one of my Hawaiian friends say something like that I tell them to STFU and that we are all pretty much identical to being with. I get preserving tradition, but when you are made at people for who they choose to mate with :confused:
 
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