CREMONA – «My employees are now afraid. And I feel helpless.” She says troubled, Silvio Lacchini, owner of CremonaHotels. «A week ago there was the latest episode in a series of nighttime raids on the Empire. Late at night the door of the hotel in Piazza della Pace was forced and money from the till and the mobile phone of my receptionist who had been absent for a moment were stolen”, says the entrepreneur, showing video from the internal camera showing a man forcing the door and entering the hall. «The images were sent to the police who are investigating – he says -. But this is only the latest in a series of episodes and unwelcome late-night entrances. But if it were only this.”
Lacchini implies that the episodes, however serious, are the most striking aspect of a widespread sense of unease and insecurity.: «Here in front, in Piazza della Pace, anything goes. Fights are almost the order of the day and, nightlife aside, when the clubs close, not all of them actually, it becomes a no man’s land – he explains -. The night watchman is scared and worried. The same can be said for the customers who return to the hotel late. Here in front there are real fights between teenagers with noise and more. A situation that has been denounced several times also by the residents. If word gets out that the centre of Cremona is not safe, the entire city and the hospitality we can offer tourists will suffer. who choose our city for its beauty, for its music, but also for its tranquility.”
Things aren’t any better for the Hotel Delle Arti in via Bonomelli: “For about ten days we had to deal with the excesses of a man who bothered customers and employees of my hotel just because we called the police to complain that his car was occupying our loading and unloading area,” he continues. “Episodes like these risk discrediting the image of the city and its livability. For goodness sake, we are not the Bronx, but the feeling of insecurity is widespread. We who live in the city feel it, and those who perhaps run into the episodes I just mentioned feel it, which are increasingly frequent and are not a good calling card.” For this reason Lacchini asks for intervention and an attempt to increase surveillance: «Finding a solution is not easy, but the attractiveness of Cremona and its image as a welcoming, quiet and safe place depends on it. We cannot stand by and watch».
THE COMMANDER IUBINI
«I can only express my closeness and solidarity with what happened in Silvio Lacchini’s hotels – says the local police commander, Luca Iubini —. When things like this happen it’s hard not to be scared and shocked. Reporting to the police, responsible for security, was the right thing to do.”
Regarding the safety of the historic center, the commander observes: «According to the data communicated in the last official occasions, a security emergency in the city is not justified by the objectively recorded data – he continues -. Another thing is obviously the feeling of insecurity that cannot be measured, but that does not find an objective parameter in the registrations of violations and illegal actions that I mentioned. This does not mean that I do not share the concern expressed by Lacchini».
What Iubini underlines does not exclude, obviously, the action of control: «As local police we ensure an evening patrol that watches over the city and the center. The concerns expressed by Lacchini are understandable”. A problem, that of security and its perception, which not by chance was one of the most discussed topics during the last electoral campaign for the election of the mayor”.
