Movida in Caserta, double clash over the “heavy” fines plan

Tightening of fines, from 50 to 300 euros, and up to a month’s closure for premises that do not respect the rules, fueling noise pollution and generating a disturbance of public peace. The proposal from the commander of the local police of Caserta, Colonel Antonio Piricelli, to the municipal administration to issue an ordinance that goes in this direction, has triggered a heated debate in the city. Among those in favor there are certainly the residents of the historic center who for years have denounced the inconveniences linked to the noise at night and the wild nightlife that lasts until dawn, in particular in via Ferrante, via Mazzocchi, via Maielli, piazza Dante and neighboring streets : «Not only do we agree with Commander Piricelli’s proposal – comments Rosy Di Costanzo, president of the “City Liveability” committee – but we hope for increasingly severe penalties against those managers who show no respect for the territory and its laws. Our hope is that music will be completely banned near homes so that everyone’s right to rest and the protection of health enshrined in the Constitution is recognized.”

Then a jab at deputy mayor Emiliano. «It is sad to read that for the vice mayor the inconveniences we are reporting are not serious. Probably for him the situation is not serious because he doesn’t experience it every weekend all year round or perhaps because for the institutions the nightlife is wild only if someone dies as happened in via Vico in the summer of 2021. Meanwhile, we residents would like to tell the Municipality that for us it is also serious that these alleys, with their doors, are used by drunk young people as open-air urinals given that Caserta does not have public toilets. Sooner or later someone will have to start taking care of this city and the liveability of its inhabitants.”

The traders of Via San Carlo are critical of the possible anti-nightlife ordinance and, having gathered in a committee, have long distanced themselves from what is happening in the other streets of the historic centre. «It is right to respect the rules but enough with the restrictions on traders – is the warning launched by Antonio Iuliano, owner of a pizzeria in the historic street and member of the committee – institutions and law enforcement persist in thinking that the solution to combat the irregular nightlife and that of attacking the category, using it as a scapegoat. This is where the principals are needed. Controls must be strengthened to stem the segment of young people who leave home with the intention of getting drunk, starting fights and creating chaos. It is not possible to attribute responsibility for what these young people do to public establishments.” The ordinance at the center of the debate, and which Commander Piricelli would have liked to implement as early as next weekend, will however not have a short path. The issue has been at the center of the discussions of the public order and security committee for some time and any administrative solution, apparently, will have to be examined by all the institutional subjects involved who will have to share and approve it collegially. A fact, the latter, which could lengthen the times of issue and implementation especially in the event that the document does not obtain a unanimous favorable opinion.

«The table on nightlife, chaired by the prefect Giuseppe Castaldo and which sees the participation of the police commissioner Andrea Grassi, all the representatives of the police forces and the municipal administration – explains Casale – has established that all the necessary measures will be put in place to overcome the difficulties created by those few establishments in the historic center that do not respect the rules, causing problems for the vast majority of businesses, which operate in a serious and correct manner. We have been working for some time and will soon adopt important measures, which will incorporate the requests coming from citizens. These measures, naturally, will be completely shared by all the participants in the Nightlife Roundtable, who have been tackling this situation in a concrete way since the beginning. Let’s not forget that, thanks to the Table, numerous prevention and control activities have been carried out in the city centre, which have protected the safety and security of many young people, avoiding delinquent phenomena linked to bad nightlife”.

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