President Meloni’s address to police officers involved in special local prevention and patrol services and ‘High Impact’ security operations

I’ll be brief. I would of course like to thank Minister Piantedosi, Prefect Pisani and [senior State Police official] Niglio, who has welcomed us to the historic headquarters of the Rome police patrol unit. I also wish to greet [senior State Police official] De Simone and the officers in Milan, as well as the local police officers in Milan who are attending via video link. I shan’t waste your time.

I am here to say thank you, personally, on behalf of the Government and on behalf of Italy, for what is a difficult, often behind the scenes and at times perhaps frustrating job, but one that has very few equals in terms of value. Look, the most valuable thing we have is our freedom: that freedom cannot exist without security, and that security cannot exist without you. Through your work, you guarantee citizens that freedom. We take that freedom for granted: a shopkeeper’s freedom to be able to pull up the shutters without being robbed, or a young woman’s freedom to be able to go out and have fun tonight without being attacked.

We consider such freedoms a given but they are not, because there are people whose job it is to safeguard and build them, and I believe that is worth remembering. I believe it is worth remembering, especially at a time like this, when it is often said in the public debate that not enough is done on security, or even at times that nothing seems to be done at all, right? The ones who say so clearly don’t know much about your work.

As we know, this is normal, unfortunately, because if a criminal gets away and goes on to commit a crime, then it makes the news but, if you stop them – and you stop hundreds – there are hundreds of crimes that aren’t committed because someone has done their job, and those are never talked about. A falling tree always makes much more noise than a growing forest, but there is a forest that grows and that is you, building and defending it. Every time you stop a criminal, knowing no one will say thank you because no one will report on you stopping that criminal, well, you should be proud of what you are building because this is also what community is all about. People know we are a community also because there are people like you who are at their service, because they know they are not alone, because they know there is someone they can turn to, someone willing to put themselves at risk for them.

This is what nations are based on. I therefore wish to say thank you, and not only personally, before you go out on another ‘high impact’ operation. You know better than I do that these are not normal, let’s say ‘routine’, operations; they are very complex, and we have carried out many of them in what has now been almost four years. I would therefore like to express my thanks once again to Prefect Pisani, Minister Piantedosi and all the senior officials who have been involved in their organisation. We have organised more than 4,000 of them and, here too – so much for ‘not doing a lot’ – you’ve done it, not us.

More than a million individuals have been identified, almost 2,500 people have been arrested and more than 2,000 illegal immigrants have been repatriated.

This work has generated, and is generating, results, and this will be the case this evening too. It will be the case in Milan, where 500 men and women are involved, plus another 100, unless I’m mistaken, from the local police, specifically for the security of underground stations, including Central Station among others, as well as in outlying neighbourhoods, which we want to defend and where we want to send out the message that ‘lawless zones’ do not exist. Zero tolerance for ‘lawless zones’.

In Rome, around 150 officers are going back to the Colosseum where we have seen some intolerable scenes over the last few weeks, with local police patrol cars being attacked as a challenge to the State. The State, however, does not back down; it reacts, which is precisely what we did after what happened at the Colosseum: identifying and arresting individuals, pressing charges and already deporting one of those responsible. We will therefore continue to react and do our job.

You are clearly on the front line. What we can do is everything in our power to acknowledge how valuable you are, not just with words but also by providing the solutions that are needed. We have tried to do this by sending reinforcements to both Rome and Milan, by investing unprecedented resources, by unfreezing salaries that had remained unchanged for a long time and by approving the latest ‘Security Decree’ in order to provide new tools.

We are trying to do this in every way we can because this is also a way to show our gratitude, and not only with words, although I do believe it is meaningful to hear it said in words sometimes as well, and so thank you once again.

Remember that you can always head out on the beat with your heads held high. Remember that every time you stop a robber or drug dealer, you are giving a piece of freedom back to the Italian people. Remember that the State has your back and there are millions of decent people behind you, cheering you on and saying thank you.

I wish all of you all the best with your work.

[Courtesy translation]

Lingua
Inglese

Tipologia Pagina: 
Intervento

Immagine in Evidenza: 

Codice video Youtube: 
pVih0uW8Mqk

Tipologia intervento: 
Intervento

[This video is available in Italian only]

Sottotitoli in inglese: 

Italiano ...