in action adults and minors
VENICE – About a month has passed since the appeal that non-distracted citizens and various Venetian associations presented to the Prefecture, Police Headquarters, Prosecutor’s Office, to all the police commands and even to the Patriarch to ask for strong action on the issue pickpocketing and the exploitation of minors to commit crimes. But not a leaf has moved. Every day there are those who find in the garbage cans or among the hedges of the gardens or the station or Piazzale Roma, dozens of wallets full of documents and credit cards, but you have cash. Wallets that they owe to as many families who will keep a bad memory of Venice for who knows how many years.
ONE MONTH MAKES THE APPEAL
Venice, which this year has been kissed by an explosion of tourism as it has not been seen for years (even without the mass arrivals of Asians and South Americans) has been literally invaded by all the gangs that previously infested it separately, but all together. Plus many new recruits including girls as young as 13, who by law are not attributable. The bands arrive in the morning from the mainland and then position themselves at the Ferrovia vaporetto landing stages for quite some time. Others go up and down the Mercerie and San Marco, while others cross the less frequented calli, where people let their guard down. And then, after 7pm, the gangs return to the terminals to prey on people who were lost on the way. Typically, day-weary hikers queuing to catch the bus. And it is as they rise that the pickpockets strike.
All these details are provided by non-distracted citizens by virtue of their thirty years of experience. People who in life are traders or merchants and who have the anger of seeing people robbed mercilessly in hounds. Thus, some pass part of the day disturbing the activity of the gangs, taking a daily dose of insults, spitting and, at times, slapping.
After a long time, the non-distracted realized that the game was uneven and so in September they had made the general appeal to see who would answer.
“One month after our request for help against minor pickpocketing and exploitation – complains one of them – no response, no intervention”.
The police mostly do what they can, knowing that they are unable to permanently set up anti-bag patrols. But even when they take them (and the Local Police took many, then accompanied to the trial) then they are released shortly afterwards or at best sentenced by direct line knowing that only when the cumulative sentence of 3 years is reached will the prison doors.
But even this is not to be taken for granted: six years ago a pickpocket had totaled sentences for 42 years but had never entered jail because every year she produced a baby, for a total (so far ascertained) of 17 pregnancies.