In the Badlands of Palermo

If the police cannot keep order, who will?

More trouble in lo Zen (that is, Zona Estensione Nord of Palermo) where the inhabitants of this monstrous modern development are deeply unhappy following the recent triple murder in Monreale, blame for which has been attributed to youths from lo Zen.

Lo Zen, from the Giornale di Sicilia

You may remember that I have written about lo Zen before now. It probably wins the prize for being the worst and most socially deprived area in the whole of Italy, though there is tough competition for that crown. It is overrun with gangs competing to control its drug dealing, and awash with weapons. But, as some of the inhabitants point out, most of them are law-abiding citizens. The Giornale di Sicilia reports, and I translate:

“Those who live in the estate have said they are shocked and dismayed by what happened in Monreale. Many now say that they are ‘afraid to leave their homes’, because ‘we are scared of all these guns and weapons that are circulating. Many of us are also afraid to go to Mass on Sunday. We ask for [the state to pay] attention…. that the police come and look for and find the weapons...’ Many ask for a conference with the prefect and the mayor, to help honest citizens emerge. But [as one spokesman makes clear]: ‘The city is in a bad state and this is being understood too late. The events in Monreale, the shootings in via La Lumia and in the nightclub make us understand the way things are.’”

In other words, Palermo is suffering from an orgy of uncontrolled violence. I wrote about the shootings in via La Lumia here. As for murders in nightclubs, there have been several of those, one of which I discuss here. One aspect that is so sad about all this is the youth of the victims and the youth of the perpetrators. The youngster arrested for the Monreale slaughter is just nineteen, and a rather immature looking nineteen at that. Essentially kids are killing other kids.

It is interesting that no one has any real solution to these problems, apart, that is. from the Church, which stresses moral renewal. That is fine, but poor people who live in what the Italians call miseria have little time for moral renewal. Before moral renewal one needs social renewal, and a modicum of prosperity and dignity. After decades of failed economic policies, one is not hopeful.

Secular sources often want to call in the Army, as one can see from the comments below the Giornale article. This has been done before, but is largely a cosmetic exercise, the government doing something to be seen doing something, and it could make matters much worse, it it goes wrong. The governors of Sicily have a history of calling in the Army, dating back to Bourbon times, and I have imagined in my latest book - if you have forgotten, the title is The Good Boys of Sicily - what might happen if some of the rabbit warrens that make up Catania or Palermo were put under military occupation. Such things never end well: and Sicily should not be treated like a rebellious colony, or like Northern Ireland. Calling in the Army would effectively give the gun-toting youths of lo Zen better targets to shoot at.

The irony is that lo Zen, like Scampia in Naples, was built as a solution to sociual deprivation, as were, of course, the most notorious council estates in the UK. Now there is talk of knocking down lo Zen, which rather misses the point that it is not the buildings that cause crime, but the people in them, though it has to be admitted that certain forms of architecture do make crime more likely.

Another irony is that the people in lo Zen feel abandoned by their government, which has intervened, by building the place in the first place, but not intervened enough. Indeed it is the failure of government to govern properly that lies at the root of all Sicily’s problems, and those of the south of Italy in general. What is needed is a government that is properly representative of the people and a civil service that can carry through sensible policies. But what you see is neglect, everywhere - sometimes picturesque, but unmistakeable as neglect.

A third irony is that none of this is the fault of the Mafia, which does not encourage kids to shoot other kids. Indeed the Mafia is a peace-loving organisation, a private army that does not like fighting unless really necessary. The kids that are the cause of these recent murders are the sort of youngsters that the Mafia would never employ. The current wave of violence may well make people nostalgic for the Mafia. After all, if the police cannot stop this, who can?