Security, Gabrielli: ‘Preventive police detention will not work’

Rome, 3 February (LaPresse) – Preventive police detention “we will first see if, in what form and in what way it will be devised, but one thing can already be said, based on experience. It will not work. Because it is unlikely to have a significant effect on the management of public order. On the other hand, it risks further radicalising the conflict, further straining already tense relations in the streets, and significantly restricting other areas of freedom. It is smoke and mirrors, security propaganda at zero cost, as they say. Propaganda that serves to avoid addressing the real issue that the violence in Turin has brought to the fore once again.” This is what former police chief Franco Gabrielli said in an interview with La Repubblica. ‘The management of public order is not a talk show formula. Nor is it a topic for discussion in a bar. It is a very delicate job, involving constant assessments and sudden or imperceptible adjustments depending on the context. It is professional knowledge that is built up with patience and training, drawing on balance and democratic responsibility. Multiplying the number of offences each time only serves to evade the key questions: how is public order really governed? And what kind of public order does a democratic country deserve? How can we avoid exposing public order units to prolonged and exhausting risks? Has anyone wondered who bears the cost of a lack of clear strategy and a real ability to read contexts? I’ll tell you: individual police officers and all those who peacefully take to the streets to exercise a constitutionally protected right,’ explained the former chief of police.