The demonstration called for the death of Abderrahim Fakir was a disaster, with eighty officers injured, the center of Bologna in disarray, a few million euros in damages, and the Pd driven from its square by left-wing extremists. Mayor Matteo Lepore, who wanted to pin the medal of low-cost solidarity to his chest, is now in blame-shifting mode. The Municipality was so busy organizing the protest that it forgot to notify the police headquarters within the legal terms. This is what was reported, and confirmed, by Resto del Carlino, the city newspaper. «The police forces learned of the appointment called for Monday evening at 7 PM from our newspaper’s internet page,» the management announced. And the statement made yesterday afternoon by the municipality to deny the local journalists’ version actually confirms it.
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Summary of the facts. Sunday evening, a few hours after the death of the Moroccan immigrant, the mayor decided to politically exploit the event and issued a press release to the media announcing the demonstration, prioritizing media coverage over institutional communication. After that, the Mayor’s office sent two text messages to the prefecture. A completely informal way of proceeding, therefore administratively irrelevant. The correct procedure would have been to go to the police headquarters or the Digos offices and fill out the legal form, or at least send a certified email (PEC), an official communication via email, to the relevant authorities. Only this behavior would have allowed the authorities to issue appropriate prescriptions to avoid disturbances, perhaps by inviting the organizers to change the location, or time, or to implement certain precautions.
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The communication of a demonstration is not a request for authorization, because in our democracy demonstrating is lawful and does not require permits, but it remains a duty, sanctioned by the Consolidated Law on Public Security in case it is not given. Its purpose is to enable authorities to prevent dangerous degenerations, violence, and inconvenience to the population, and for this reason, it should be given three days before the event. None of this happened on Monday in Bologna, however. The Municipality tried to defend itself from the accusations, and from the risk of receiving a fine, in addition to the request to compensate the city for the damages caused by the hooligans called to the square. The municipality announced that on Monday, at lunchtime, law enforcement and local police had a meeting to decide how to manage the square. Another technical meeting, this time also with the participation of the deputy mayor, Emily Clancy, took place at 6 PM, just immediately before the procession for Fakir began.
The point, however, and it’s regrettable for Mayor Lepore, is not this. It’s obvious that the authorities, once they somehow became aware of what was planned, took action to prevent the worst. What is unacceptable, however, is that the mayor calls a demonstration which, knowing the city as he should more than anyone, was more than predictable to turn into a procession against law enforcement, without involving the authorities, informing them within the terms provided by law, and trying to agree on it with the relevant parties. Especially since calling people to the square over an incident involving two police officers, but about which nothing was yet known, and nothing is known, essentially means calling a gathering against law enforcement and the State, as if to distance himself from any minimal political responsibility.
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The Municipality’s clarifications seem like a patch that doesn’t cover the hole. The Ministry of Interior (Viminale) has in fact initiated an investigation procedure to inquire into alleged shortcomings, which concluded in a few hours with official confirmation that there was no formal notice from the relevant parties to the authorities. For the record, the Municipality risks a fine of up to ten thousand euros, recently increased by security decrees. Since it is unlikely that, if proven wrong, Mayor Lepore will pay out of his own pocket, it is clear that any sanction will be borne by the people of Bologna, as will the costs for restoring public decorum in the city after the violence by social centers and autonomists.
Instead, the costs of destroyed police vehicles and the forced rest days of injured officers will fall on the pockets of all Italians. Lepore will not bear these costs either, despite demanding last autumn that the Ministry of Interior (Viminale) pay him one hundred thousand euros for the damages caused by pro-Pal and far-left groups in the city protesting against the Israeli basketball team Maccabi, who were in Bologna for a Euroleague match. More than two squares, as he claims to distance himself from last Monday’s hooligans, the mayor has two weights and two measures.
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