We receive and publish a report from the Autonomous Penitentiary Police Union on yet another attack against prison police officers.
“Serious shocking violence – they write – in the Belluno prison due to the crazy intemperance of a foreign inmate and, once again, some of the policemen on duty and some of the furnishings inside the structure are paying the consequences. As Giovanni Vona, national secretary for the Triveneto of the Autonomous Penitentiary Police Union explains: “Last Saturday, a North African prisoner who was stationed in front of the prison rotunda gate refused to return to his cell (restricted to ordinary regime) with the pretense of speaking to the Penitentiary Police Officer. However, there is a background: the same prisoner had been involved in a serious incident already at the beginning of the month, when he asked the Section Officer to be able to go to the local barbershop outside the permitted hours but was obviously denied and for this reason, faced with his violent verbal reaction, he was reported disciplinary. Returning to Saturday, when the Officer refused to return to the cell, the prisoner recognized him as the one who reported him disciplinaryly and, still resentful, offended and threatened him and then, completely unexpectedly, slapped him on the left ear. The colleague then went to the infirmary because he was losing blood from his ear, in the infirmary they sent him to hospital where they diagnosed the lesion of the eardrum, with a twenty-day prognosis”. These were moments of very high tension, concludes the trade unionist, who appeals to SAPPE for its closeness and solidarity.
“The violence and tension experienced by the police officers on duty in the Belluno prison are very serious: it is unacceptable that a Penitentiary Police officer must risk his own safety every day and be subject to aggression and violence solely because he represents the State in a context in which the violent fringe of prisoners has no hesitation in creating disorders, riots, critical events. Enough!”, complaint the general secretary of SAPPE Donato Capece. “It is completely clear that in the prisons of the nation and of the Triveneto in particular, the strong and evident presence of the State is needed, which cannot tolerate this widespread impunity, and urgent and effective measures are needed!”, continues the SAPPE leader, which renews the appeal to the DAP leaders to create the conditions “to restore order and security, truly implementing that zero tolerance towards those violent prisoners who, even in prison, are convinced that they can continue to commit crimes with absolute impunity!”. “We need strict rules to restore order and security in prisons, truly implementing that zero tolerance towards violent inmates who, even in prison, are convinced that they can continue to commit crimes with absolute impunity! Here We need the strong and obvious presence of the State, which cannot tolerate this widespread impunity, and urgent and effective measures are needed!”, concludes Capece.
