Shots fired in Sicily - in Palermo, Noto, Syracuse
Why?
An interesting little incident recently in Palermo, as recounted in the Giornale di Sicilia, translated by me:
“Gunshots fired in via Barone della Scala in Palermo. During an argument, a man pulled out a gun and fired into the air. The Carabinieri are investigating what happened on Thursday afternoon in the small side street off via Villagrazia. Two men are said to have argued not far from the Sacred Heart church.
“The Radiomobile Unit intervened after an emergency call that people had heard someone scream and then one or more gunshots. In a few minutes, the Carabinieri cars and an ambulance arrived. The images captured by cameras installed in the area and the accounts of some residents are being examined.”
Well, it is a good thing that the man fired into the air, and it is not unusual for men to quarrel in the street, even in mid-afternoon, but it is frightening that in an ordinary street in the outskirts of Palermo, men go around armed. Were they gangsters, or Mafiosi, or drug dealers? One wonders. Or where they just ragazzi, boys, like those who carried out the massacre of Monreale that I wrote about recently? What should be clear is that Palermo is awash with guns, which are clearly easy to obtain. The obvious way, indeed the only way, to take these weapons out of circulation is a strict regime of check points and stop and search. Don’t hold your breath. It could be done, but I doubt it will be, any more than such a policy will ever be carried out in London, world capital of knife crime.
Most unfortunately, there seems to be similar incidents is other parts of Sicily, in particular in the delightful south-east if the island. Once again, here is the Giornale:
“New shooting in Syracuse: this time it happened in Cassibile, a neighbourhood south of the town. From what emerged from initial investigations of the provincial command of the Carabinieri, a couple of gunshots were fired two nights ago which did not hurt anyone, but they are trying to reconstruct the entire story and among the hypotheses considered is a settling of scores between gangs.
“A disturbing episode a few days later, which happened last week in Noto, during the famous flower festival: in via Rocco Pirri, a stone's throw from Corso Vittorio Emanuele, in the the heart of the baroque city, gunshots were fired in a fight between two groups, one from Avola and the other from Pachino. The police arrested two young people from Avola who are charged, on various counts, with fighting and illegal possession of a weapon.
“More gunshots but this time culminating in a murder in Lentini: the victim was a 49-year-old shepherd, killed, according to reports, by a retired policeman, Salvatore Tinnirello, who was arrested. There were allegedly disagreements between the two, in particular over some alleged trespassing of livestock on the property of the arrested man.”
The first two incidents seem to be gang warfare, similar to the sort of gang warfare that resulted in the Monreale massacre. Luckily, on these two occasions, no one was killed. Interesting to note that rival gangs from two small towns, Pachino and Avola choose to fight it out in Noto, much loved by tourists. But it is remarkable that they pick public fights at all. After all, why alert the police and the public to your activities? Pachino is famous for tomatoes, and Avola for its grapes - well, now they have another, less welcome, cause to be well-known. As for the murder in Lentini, one wonders just how a trespassing sheep can spark off a murder. Perhaps this was the culmination of a long and bitter feud.
The article goes on, with details of two other gun crimes: “Last April, a 47-year-old man from Syracuse was arrested, accused of shooting a man because he refused to hide a cache of drugs, while two months earlier another shooting had taken place, culminating in the serious wounding of a man, hit by 4 gunshots fired by a neighbour.”
What does all this mean? Is Sicily one of the most violent places on earth? Back in the 1970’s Catania did have a reputation for bag-snatching, but having travelled widely in Sicily, I have never ever felt unsafe, not have I ever heard a single shot fired. These incidents are rare; however, one cannot call them ‘isolated’. A pattern certainly emerges as one studies the Sicilian press, and that is that people lose their tempers in Sicily rather easily, gangs turn nasty, and there are far too many guns about. How did it come to this? Where do the guns come from? I wish I knew.
I spent a few days in Sicily about a year ago, first in Palermo which I found a bit dark and then in Sycracusa specifically Ortigia which I found bright and agreeable.