Tuesday, February 16, 2009
Italian Interior Minister, Roberto Maroni Calls for
Rapists to be Castrated
THE ANNOTICO REPORT
The
proportion of immigrants accused of crimes of sexual violence has risen
from 9 per cent of the total ten years to 40 per cent today. Communities
are creating groups of "concerned citizens" (neighbourhood watch groups),
and is not the same as condoning vigilante patrols, known as ronde.
Last month Mr Berlusconi vowed to increase tenfold the number of soldiers
helping police to patrol city streets, taking the total to 30,000. But
he also said that to guarantee public safety, "we would have to have as
many soldiers as beautiful women, and I don't think that would be possible".
Italian Minister calls for Rapists to be Castrated
London Times Online; Richard Owen in Rome; February 16, 2009
An Italian Cabinet minister called today for rapists to be chemically
castrated, amid a growing row over vigilante attacks on immigrants that
have followed a series of rapes blamed on foreigners.
Roberto Maroni, the Interior Minister, urged Italians not to take the
law into their own hands after masked youths armed with wooden clubs smashed
up a kebab bar near the scene of a rape at Caffarella Park on the Appian
Way in Rome at the weekend...
The attack followed an incident on St Valentine's Day in which a 14-year-old
girl was raped and her 16-year-old boyfriend beaten up in the park, which
is used by courting couples.
Also at the weekend a 21-year-old Bolivian girl was raped in Milan by
a man described as North African, while in Bologna a Tunisian who had just
been released from prison after being held on drugs offences was re-arrested
for allegedly raping a 15-year-old local girl.
Roberto Calderoli of the Northern League, who is Minister for Simplification
of Laws in the centre-right government of Silvio Berlusconi, said that
chemical castration was "the only answer" when teenage girls were being
attacked. "Talk of rehabilitation is not enough," he told La Stampa. "Society
must defend itself".
Mr Maroni said that the Government would push through an emergency decree
this week speeding up legislation aimed at creating "groups of unnamed
citizens" to "assist the police by bringing to their attention events which
might be damaging to urban security". The decree will also ban magistrates
from releasing into house arrest those accused of crimes involving sexual
violence.
Mr Maroni said that creating groups of "concerned citizens" was not
the same as condoning vigilante patrols, known as ronde. However Pierferdinando
Casini, of the Christian Democratic UDC, said that the Government was "flailing
around" after coming to power on a promise to resolve the crime and immigration
problem nearly a year ago. "What we need are more police," he said.
Marco Minniti, the shadow interior minister, said that there was "a
very fine line" between vigilantes and neighbourhood watch groups. Enzo
Letizia, head of the police trades union, said that because of public spending
cuts by the Berlusconi government the police were so badly underfunded
that there was no money to maintain the country's 25,000 police patrol
cars, 500 of which were currently out of commission.
Gianni Alemanno, the rightwing mayor of Rome, who visited the Cafferella
Park area at the weekend to meet angry residents, said that police patrols
should be stepped up in isolated areas where the suburbs merged into the
countryside. Rapists must know they face "a definitive sentence", the mayor
said...
The number of Romanians arrested for rape annually has risen from 170
five years ago to nearly 500, followed by Moroccans (300), Albanians (150)
and Tunisians (120), according to official crime figures. The proportion
of immigrants accused of crimes of sexual violence has risen from 9 per
cent of the total ten years to 40 per cent today. A taskforce of 25 Romanian
police officers arrived in Rome today to help the Italian authorities investigate
the recent spate of rapes.
...Last month four Romanian immigrants were arrested at Guidonia, near
Rome, for allegedly gang-raping an Italian woman. The day after the attack,
Albanians and Romanians were beaten up by a mob and Romanian-owned shops
were fire-bombed.
A Bill currently going through Parliament includes a provision calling
for a census of homeless people to be entered into a database held by the
Interior Ministry. Doctors would be allowed to report illegal immigrants
to the authorities, something which has been banned on privacy grounds
since 1998.
Last month Mr Berlusconi vowed to increase tenfold the number of soldiers
helping police to patrol city streets, taking the total to 30,000. But
in a characteristic gaffe he said that to guarantee public safety, "we
would have to have as many soldiers as beautiful women, and I don't think
that would be possible".
The recent attacks echo the rape and murder of a woman in Rome in October
2007 for which a Romanian man has been convicted. That attack helped to
make crime and immigration one of the main campaign issues in last year's
elections.
Thousands of illegal immigrants continue to arrive at the tiny Italian
island of Lampedusa, off the North African coast, where there have been
riots at the overcrowded detention centre.
Last November, four youths beat up and set alight a homeless Italian
man sleeping on a park bench in Padova....
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