As evening falls, the urban living room with noble palaces and bell towers of ancient churches remains in the dark corner. Puff, and it is invisible. Thefts, muggings, drugs and violence transform the beauty of the Cassaro into a jungle, where residents become Sherlock Holmes, warn drug dealers and pickpockets, make identikits for the police, and in the end understand that the only weapon to defend themselves is to organize patrols under their homes. Since last October, and after vain complaints to obtain the urgent intervention of the police, they monitor the axis in teams, back and forth, usually five, six: from 8 pm to about midnight, the shift of volunteer vigilantes of the legality denied until now.
Because when you arrive after 8 pm in the streets that branch off from the Central Station to Via Maqueda and up to Quattro Canti, with the adjacent side streets, it is dangerous even to stand in front of the door looking for the keys. Not to mention those who have to park far away and walk down the street: between thieves, muggers, drug addicts looking for easy loot to buy heroin and crack, you risk being attacked and robbed every day. The team that patrols notices, for example, if there is a serial pickpocket who specializes in stealing wallets and cell phones from tourists’ backpacks. One day they approached him and warned him, and he, not at all intimidated, replied: “I have to take the bread home, don’t get in my way or I’ll kill you…”.
A full report by Connie Transirico on the Palermo edition of the Giornale di Sicilia on newsstands today
