The city that gave us Rossini the composer, and Massimo Ambrosini, the footballer, is also home to a judicial system as unfathomable and xenophobic as other Italian officials and government departments are when it comes to the Roma people.
This is a photo of Roberto Malini, Viktoria Mohacsi, Dario Picciau. Viktoria Mohacsi is Roma, and was an EU parliament member from 2004-2009.
Were the country a third world country, it would be understandable; but Italy is a member of the European Union, and, as such, should follow the rulings and dictats on Human Rights? Yeah? No way!
The hatred shown towards the Roma people has been covered by me before, and that persecution continues, in spite of criticism from the EU, (a toothless tiger in this case if ever there was one).
However the persecution has now been extended towards members of the Everyone Group, (of which I am a proud member).
Two members, Roberto Malini and Dario Picciau, went to the defence of a Roma man being victimised by a Pesarian police officer. This incident took place in 2008. To cut a long story short, the two of them have now been judged criminals and received a heavy fine in place of a prison sentence.
To quote the Pesaro Police Commissioner, "“Seeing the Roma are notorious criminals, I consider EveryOne Group part of a criminal organization and I invite it to cease its activity”.
So I guess I am part of a criminal organisation - and proud to be too.
Persecution of the Roma people at all levels of Italian government is nothing new; but this is the first time my colleagues and friends have been involved at this level - in fact, the first time a judgment has been passed against any members of an acitivist group in Europe.
Matteo Pegoraro, the co-president of Everyone Group, raised the question of the persecution of activists with the Frontline Organisation that works with the UN and European institutions on Human Rights.
Plus ca change plus la meme choses - such is the case with the bigotted, racist politicans and officials in Italy. A leopard never changes its spots - neither do these violently anti-Roma Italian politicians and police.
Contact your European Member of Parliament - ask when this backward Italian government and its supporters are going to be brought to task over their acitivities. Shades of Mussolini's beliefs and principles arise in the minds of these neanderthals - their hatred being aimed at the Roma people and not Jews this time.
