Let’s return to dealing with illegal car parkers who bother Marsala motorists with requests for money to ensure, according to them, visual “control” and therefore safety on the car.
We do so with a report from a reader, regarding an episode that would reveal, according to what the citizen of Marsala says, concerns about the effectiveness of the local police forces. The reader witnessed the actions of an illegal parking attendant in Piazza del Popolowho, despite the presence of a Municipal Police patrol, continued to remain in “his” area of competence to harass motorists.
Reader’s complaint – “On Friday evening I unfortunately witnessed the inefficiency of the Municipal Police – writes the reader -, represented by two police officers in a car who went to Piazza del Popolo, manned by the usual parking attendant, among other things with his arm in a cast. This individual bothers anyone who parks in that square. The Municipal Police arrived on site, saw him and did absolutely nothing. Nothing was said, they didn’t even get out of the car.”
“The parking attendant spoke to a friend as if nothing had happened, walked away from the parking lot for a minute to cool off at the fountain and then came back immediately after to bother everyone, including tourists. I witnessed the scene that lasted more than an hour with the Municipal Police passing by, looking at him and walking away – the story continues -. I wonder what the point of all this is. At least once the Police came and in front of my eyes they chased the parking attendant on duty, arresting him on the spot. I wonder if the Municipal Police staff is trained properly to carry out this control activity. The citizen does his part by reporting to the single emergency number 112, but if this is the most they do…”.
The denial of the Municipal Police – The Marsala Municipal Police Command, contacted by our editorial staff, and the same staff who intervened on site, deny the reconstruction of the facts provided by the reader, saying that it does not correspond to reality. The Municipal Police highlights that, one a significant share of DASPO measures issued by the Police Headquarters in the Marsala area derives from the sanctions inflicted by the municipal police on illegal parking attendants. They also recall from the command of via del Giudice, that those who have violated the Daspo, such as the case of the illegal parking attendant on Via Giulio Anca Omodei or that of parking in Piazza della Vittoriawere reported by the Municipal Police to the Public Prosecutor’s Office and were convicted.
Regarding the “suggestive description of the chase with the arrest of a fugitive policeman”, the Municipal Police points out that the activity of illegal parking, as well as the violation of DASPO, does not provide for arrest in flagrante delictoexcept in the case where the parking attendant is responsible for the crime of extortion and this has been documented with a complaint by the person who was the victim of the extortion.
In the past, the municipal police also remember having carried out the arrest of a person in the ‘Salato’ parking area following a formal complaint by a citizen and how not to remember, again by the traffic police, the pursuit, last year, of an illegal parking attendant who is always stationed in Piazza del Popolo (below the video).
From the Command it is specified that “the police unit of the municipal police will request, in confidential ways, for judicial police investigations, the reader’s personal details to listen to him and record his statements in a complete and responsible manner, ensuring that any crime should emerge from the hearing testimonial will be reported to the competent authority and criminally prosecuted”.
The issue of illegal parking in Marsala is a long-standing issueamong others, which operate in different areas of the city, there is also the illegal parking attendant who has been operating undisturbed for decades in the square adjacent to the police station in via Verdi and who, from what we know, has never been arrested or sanctioned. To address the phenomenon of illegal parkers, who continue to annoy citizens and tourists, incisive and coordinated action between the various law enforcement agencies is necessary, and the collaboration of citizens, who do not have to pay and who must report it, is essential.
