A video shot from a balcony in the Vasco neighborhood in Naples, near the central station, has been published on a Facebook page showing a group of sub-Saharan men attacking soldiers in Naples, prompting the mayor of Naples to react, reports RT en Francais.
While a group of uniformed soldiers bring a man of Sub-Saharan descent to the ground, a dozen other individuals attempt to aggressively prevent the soldiers from acting. The reasons for military involvement remain unknown.
Initially reported by the local press, like the Neapolitan daily Chronache di Napoli, which evokes a “revolt of foreigners against soldiers”, the altercation ends up interesting the national press. La Repubblica describes the scene in the following way: “Military men were surrounded and assaulted by a group of immigrants to prevent an arrest.”
The newspaper of the first Italian private channel, Canale 5, also broadcast the video in its August 7 edition. “We even made it to Canale 5,” exult several Vasco residents on the Facebook group, where many of them welcome the media success of the video. “We have had an explosion of enrollments [on the page]!”, one of the women’s administrators said.
Alongside these messages of satisfaction, those of exasperation also flourish: “One feels abandoned, one is afraid for our families,” writes a Neapolitan. “Abandoned … and betrayed!” comments the man who initially shared the video.
The affair took on such magnitude that the mayor of Naples ended up reacting to the press. Luigi De Magistris (whose Orange Movement is classified center-left) assures that the municipality takes resident's safety seriously. “When these things happen, there is no doubt that it requires control, prevention, and suppression,” he said, while highlighting the initiatives taken by the municipal executive to “revitalize a difficult neighborhood," particularly in terms of trade.
For its part, the anti-racist association Rete antirazzista condemned the agitation provoked by the video's broadcast.