Wednesday, February 07, 2018

Migrant Backlash in Italy

"I won’t deny that many locals feel uncomfortable about the scourge of drug dealing."
"The murder of Pamela turned tolerance to intolerance, which is not normally part of Macerata’s character."
"Even I have become tired of these young guys who loaf around all day long, begging for money. We’ve always offered an exemplary welcome to migrants. But a lot of people are angry."
"They [the victims of the attack] were all of colour, this is obviously a grave fact. As  was grave what happened to Pamela [Mastropietro]."
"The closeness of the two events makes you imagine there could be a connection."
Romano Carancini, Macerata Mayor
Pamela Mastropietro, chi era la ragazza uccisa a Macerata
Pamela Mastropietro, 18, murdered  CorierreTV, Italy
"In Italy today we have 630,000 migrants, of whom only 30,000, or five per cent, have the right to be here, having been recognized as refugees. The others represent a social bomb that is ready to explode. Immigration is a very urgent issue."
"We consider it an absolute priority to take back control of the situation."
Silvio Berlusconi, former Italian Prime Minister

"What happened appears to be a completely random armed retaliation raid."
"In a democracy, it is not permitted for individuals to seek justice alone, even if in this case, there is nothing that recalls a notion of justice."
"[The gunman was motivated] by racial hatred. [He had] a background of right-wing extremism with clear references to fascism and Nazism."
Marco Minniti, Italian Interior Minister
"Pamela Mastropietro mutilata con orrore. Molti organi non si trovano più"
Il Tempo.it   Nigerian man arrested, suspected of the murder of 18-year-old Pamela Mastropietro

The man arrested on suspicion of murder was a drug dealer. The 18-year-old Italian woman he is suspected of having murdered and dismembered, was a recovering drug addict. She was last seen walking away from a drug rehabilitation community. Her remains were discovered contained in two suitcases. Her bloodied clothing, a pharmacy receipt for a syringe and knives she had purchased were found in the arrested suspect's apartment. More incriminating evidence could scarcely be imagined.

The bulk of the African and Middle East migrants washing ashore in Europe and transiting Italy has left Italy with an estimated half-million undocumented, illegal migrants, straining the country's social resources. Most of those migrants happen to be young men. And many of them are being held responsible for a crime wave coinciding with their entry to the country. Drug dealing is one favourite occupation linked to their presence.

A neo-Nazi fascist of 28 who formerly ran unsuccessfully for public office, Luca Traini, with no previous criminal record was arrested on Saturday after he had embarked on a two-hour shooting spree when he succeeded in terrorizing the city of Macerata, where the young Italian woman had been slaughtered, in an obvious retaliatory attack, targeting Africans on the street. Six were wounded, before the Italian man was taken into custody.
A picture showing a man identified by the Italian Carabinieri, paramilitary police, as Luca Traini, who is accused of having shot with a firearm to several people in Macerata, Italy, Saturday, Feb. 3, 2018. ANSA via AP
Sentiment in Italy is already running high over the overwhelming presence of illegal migrants, hundreds of thousands flooding across the Mediterranean in smuggling boats in the past several years. The city of 43,000 in Italy's central region saw five men and a woman targeted randomly as an expression of frustrated rage over the presence of the unwanted. The shooter had begun his rampage in the area where the prime suspect in the earlier murder lived, and close to where the young woman's remains were discovered.

The man, Luca Traini, was photographed with an Italian flag over his shoulders, a tattoo of a stylized icon of fascism on his right forehead, a registered gun in his car, found after he fled on foot and was arrested by armed Carabinieri officers. As he was arrested he was said to have made a fascist salute. The tattoo was identified as the Wolfangel, a runic symbol of ancient heritage appropriated by Nazi Germany.

Ironically, the arrested Nigerian being held for murder and likely to undergo a speedy trial, is named Innocent Oseghale. 

The head of the League party, Mateo Salvini, has pledged to deport 150,000 migrants in his first year in office should his party win control of Parliament in a centre-right coalition with Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia and the smaller Brothers of Italy, opposing the centre-left Democratic Party and populist 5-Star Movement. The opposition has been given more than ample ammunition to win the popular vote given the straits Italy finds itself in, over its migrant flood.

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