National Carabinieri Day is also in Reggio Calabria

Today, June 5, 2024is celebrated throughout Italy National Carabinieri Day. TO Reggio Calabria a series of events aimed at reflecting its fundamental values ​​and further strengthening the bond with the community and the Force.

210th Anniversary of the foundation of the Carabinieri, the words of the Provincial Commander of Reggio Calabria Gen.B.Cesario Totaro

“Authorities, kind guests, Carabinieri of every order and rank, civilian defense employees, representatives of professional trade union associations among military personnel and of the National Carabinieri Association, I would like first of all to address, on behalf of all the Carabinieri of the province of Reggio Calabria and My personal greeting, a grateful greeting for being here with us today, because your presence gives particular solemnity to this simple but significant ceremony on the occasion of the 210th anniversary of the foundation of the Carabinieri.

It is natural to ask what the elixir of life is for this bicentennial institution. Among the many pieces that support and guide it after many years there is certainly the compass of ethics with its 4 cardinal points: the militaritythe competenceThe courage and thehumility.

The term militarityonce perhaps evocative only of law & order, today represents the faithful guardian of the values ​​that are the basis of this over a century-old institution, first of all the order and harmony that every garrison of the weapon helps to guarantee in the management of the dynamics relationships between individuals and public authorities within individual communities.

The Carabinieri, for its function of prevention and social reassurance, has always made use of a dense network of Command Stations which, especially in the smaller towns, represent the only point of reference for citizens, a symbol of legality and of visible presence of the State, capable of listening to people to understand their concerns and satisfy their emerging needs.

It is no coincidence that last September 16th Pope Francis, on the occasion of the meeting for the 80th anniversary of Salvo D’Acquisto’s sacrifice, said that the Carabinieri “are not only called to do their duty”, but have a great mission: that of making society more “just and humane”. Everyone who wears this uniform carries the burden of this responsibility.

A mission carried out with competencethe second cardinal point of ethics in weapons.

The balance in any community is based on the commitment of each person and, in particular, of those who lead, those who govern, those who exercise any power as long as they do so with competence, a requirement that can only be achieved through adequate training, which aims at integral development and uninterrupted nature of man, as a synthesis between technical-scientific capabilities and the cult of values.

But for integral development, integral training is needed, based on value of being rather than appearingthat ESSE QUAM VIDERI with noble and ancient roots to which Cicero and, even before, Aeschylus had referred, both ironic in denouncing – millennia ago – the tendency of men to want to compete, as regards virtue, in appearance rather than in substance.

It is a vast field of action in which discouragement can arise, today even more than yesterday, in the current anthropological upheaval. To face it, constant commitment is needed in the awareness that what has been achieved is always too little compared to what still remains to be done.

A training that is the “tradition” of a memory made of gestures of simplicity, solidarity, humility, which have been able to change the history of the fight against crime and terrorism in public order and security, appealing – as President Scalfaro had the opportunity to say a few years ago – not just through acts of heroism, but by resorting to courage daily newspaper of small actions, another pillar of the Carabiniere’s ethics.

Since 6 November 1860, the date of the establishment of the first garrison of the army in Reggio Calabria, at the time composed of 30 soldiers under the command of an officer, many purple drops have been shed to safeguard freedom and justice in this land, often considered of the border.

But if what we do is just a drop in the ocean, it makes me think that the ocean would be smaller without that drop.

This is why the Army has been working hard for over two centuries humilityto guarantee the provision of institutional services, in particular local ones.

Humility and closeness, two qualities as rare as they are essential in our being and our actions, which people recognize in us and which they have not renounced continuously for over two centuries, but even more so nowadays, in which the transgressiveness of social behaviour, economic apprehensions and, last but not least, the pervasiveness of the ‘Ndrangheta affect the perception of security and social cohesion.

Not a humility based on a generic do-goodism or on a presumption of oneself, but rather the humility of those who know they cannot do it alone. Of those who know they are called to an arduous task: but called, and therefore accompanied.

Accompanied by those to whom our same mission has been entrusted, as well as by the judicial authority, who have always been at our side, but also by all those services oriented towards inclusion, overcoming the gap, to be of daily support to the most vulnerable, to guarantee protection to victims of all kinds of violence, welcome refugees, help in emergencies and natural disasters, in the awareness that “alone we go faster but together we go further”.

It is, therefore, for this reason that we are particularly happy today to share this moment with the people who animate these communities, starting with their first citizens whom I thank for being here with us today and to whom I say: hold onto your Stations Carabinieri!

This happy anniversary, which always represents a moment of celebration for all of us Carabinieri, even if with sober and contained tones, as is our tradition, is also an opportunity to remember the Carabinieri who honored the oath with courage and dedication, until to the extreme sacrifice; in particular today we commemorate the martyrs^[1] of Fiesole who 80 years ago, on 12 August 1944, consciously sacrificed their lives to save that of ten citizens, shortly before being shot by the German occupier^[2].

Even today the commitment required is very intense, and it remains inherent in a high risk for operators; so much so that in the past year, 10 colleagues were injured while carrying out their service.

I know well that there can be no compensation between the criminal statistics and the relevance of our commitment, which is complementary to that of the other police forces, however, in the last year alone, the Carabinieri have arrested 1,129 people of which 38 for association of a mafia type, with the capture of 9 fugitives^[3] and over 35 million and 800 thousand euros of assets seized and confiscated, pursuing 71% in the last three years^[4] of all reported crimes and uncovering 72%^[5] of cases resolved by all law enforcement agencies in the province.

Every day over 167 patrols operate for prevention and on average 33^[6] men are engaged in public order, in the context of the functional architecture offered by the coordination model of the police forces.

“Everywhere and low to the ground”^[7]sometimes “eradicating and not simply shearing” as Don Ciotti would say, our territorial departments have adhered to the specific needs of the communities, providing a dense protection network, in synergy with the specialty sectors entrusted to the force (health, cultural heritage, work, environment and agri-food), whose high level of expertise is particularly dear to Italians.

In particular, the Army was called to play a role as a top player with regards to the ecological transition, in the era of the critical relationship between man and natural resources.

The Reggio Forest Carabinieri, who as environmental police are an integral part of the national security system, with their 107 units guarantee environmental proximity in the provincial context.

At the international level, they provide a contribution as Green Helmets for the UNESCO environment, for the protection of sites recognized as world heritage sites. In this regard, a Center of Excellence has been set up in Sabaudia, available to the United Nations, for the training of environmental operators from various countries, especially on the African continent.

Security, however, does not end with law enforcement and prevention activities since it – as Minister Piantedosi has underlined several times – is, first of all, an expectation: the aspiration of every citizen to enjoy “a space within which…to exercise one’s political, civil, social and economic rights”.

And the Reggio Army, with its 90 territorial and 21 forestry garrisons, is a guarantor of this space.

Finally, I turn to you, soldiers of the Carabinieri Provincial Command of Reggio Calabria, to ask you to be even more attentive interpreters of the community’s needs, providing that support and closeness that the Carabinieri has always guaranteed to the population and giving prominence – in every relationship with the citizen – to that availability and correctness that also make firmness and determination credible when necessary.

I am sure that with your daily and silent commitment you will constitute a bulwark to protect security and peaceful coexistence, corresponding to the unparalleled credit of trust that citizens have always given us and which, ultimately, remains our highest gratification.

Long live Italy!

Long live the Carabinieri!”

“[1] The Carabinieri Alberto La Rocca, Vittorio Mirandola and Fulvio Sbarretti.

[2] Caught in the same yearning for freedom, from September 1943 to April 1945, over 2,700 Carabinieri fell and another 5,000 were deported to prison camps in Germany.

[3] Gioffrè, Mercuri, Strangio, Rocco, Bellocco, Sganga, Catania, Gutuman, Zappia.

[4] 32,817 Weapons compared to the total 46,224.

[5] 9,713 Territorial Army and 1,731 Forestry Army compared to the total 15,892.

[6] 12,010 soldiers engaged in OP in the last 12 months.

[7] The reference is to the title of a book by Giuseppe De Rita, Honorary President of CENSIS, which collects the centre’s annual analyzes from 1967 to 2007″.