Scary moments right in front of the Cathedral from Naples. A homeless man of African origin was hit on the head with a crowbar municipal agent who had invited him up from the porch where several other clochards like him have spent the night for some time. According to the reconstruction provided, the agent, on the ground, fired at least seven shots while the immigrant was still trying to hit him, wounding the man in the leg. At the scene, numerous passers-by who tried to stop the immigrant and then tried to provide first aid to the wounded, bloody officer and his face swollen from the blows suffered. The weapon used by the foreigner is an iron bar, the kind that is usually found inside the pillars.
The state police then intervened to block a lynching attempt against the homeless man who had attacked the policeman. The policemen took the attacker away: someone in the crowd tried to kick him while some women applauded his intervention.
Due to his injuries, the municipal agent was transferred to the Ospedale del Mare while the clochard to Vecchio Pellegrini. It is not a threat to life. This was reported by the Naples Police Headquarters.
The reconstruction of the attack against the agent of the local police unit TESM (Protection of Social and Minor Emergencies) arrives from the Municipality of Naples which, «Accompanied by social workers from the street unit, she participated in the usual preparatory operations for cleaning the arcades according to the schedule of sanitation, recovery and waste disposal interventions, organized by ASIA and Napoli Servizi. A young homeless man, presumably of North African origin, invited to stand up to allow the places to be cleaned, objected and hit Lieutenant Salvatore Ruoppolo, 63, in the face with an iron stake that he was hiding under the blankets. , wounding him in the head and left eye».
«The agent – reports the note from the Municipality – in defense of himself fired a few shots and wounded the attacker in the leg before collapsing on the ground in a pool of blood. The operators present intervened immediately, including numerous passers-by trying to stop the immigrant, who, although wounded, continued to attack the agent, until the intervention of the Army and police officers who made the arrest.».
«Both wounded -continues the communiqué of the Municipality- were transferred to the hospital; The agent was found to have multiple fractures in both upper limbs, a swollen eye, several stitches were applied to his skull and he is undergoing further tests.».
Mayor Manfredi and the municipal councilors for Legality and Social Policies, Antonio De Iesu and Luca Trapanese, expressed “feelings of affectionate closeness with Municipal Police Lieutenant Salvatore Ruoppolo, who suffered serious injuries after the brutal attack.” Added to these sentiments is appreciation and deep appreciation for the delicate and difficult action that, on a daily basis, the women and men of the Municipal Police, the operators of the Strada Unit, Napoli Servizi and Asia carry out in the territory to inform decorous and clean conditions in some places with a high concentration of homeless citizens, with respect for their dignity and fragility”, adds the note.
“The municipal administration – explained councilor De Iesu – is speeding up the procedures for testing the electric pulse gun, which will provide municipal police officers with a more effective tool for dealing with violent and aggressive subjects, avoiding the use of weapons of fire”. «I am saddened and concerned by what happened – said the Trapani councilor – we are experiencing a real emergency that we are facing with the means available. Managing homelessness is complex because it requires several types of interventions: national measures are needed to combat poverty as soon as possible and then the health system must be in a position to provide the necessary support. Whoever ends up on the street loses their identity (friendships, belongings, customs, freedom of movement, relationship with the city) and for this reason today’s episode is the result of neglect over the years of fragile people with addiction and mental problems. . There are no victims or culprits, just one certainty: it is necessary to build a network that gives personalized responses that cannot be resolved on a bed in a bedroom. Throughout the city, we are creating micro-structures, small communities capable of welcoming people with their individual problems, mostly of a psychic nature and addictions. We are working on that, with street units spread throughout the area and coordinated by an operations center and with the inclusion of a psychiatrist in the team.
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in Il Mattino
