A question of quaestors or why the anti-Gandhi law is liberticidal and a demonstration-killer

And today’s news of the approval in committee of the security billwhich, among the various and already unpopular provisions, includes the already discussed anti-Gandhi provision: for those who missed it, in short, the amendment provides for prison for anyone "blocks" a street, road of any kind or railway (replacing the old rule scribbled down at the time by Salvini, which however was not a crime and provided for a simple fine as a penalty).

Now, I could give you speeches about how a rule like this is ideologically wrong, going to undermine one of the sacrosanct rights of democracies, about the fact that wanting to control dissent is a contradiction, about how providing for such serious penalties is incompatible with simply blocking a road, but these have already been done and analyzed by people more capable, and frankly intelligent and prepared, than me. For this reason I will not dwell too much on the theory, I will bring you a somewhat practical vision, made up of those few personal experiences that I have lived in the last period.

Premise, I am a left-wing person (or rather, a centrist but aware of the historical context), and I have my biases, but here I will try to give you a speech as objective as possible while considering the various personal anecdotes.

Have you ever wondered how to organize a demonstration? It’s actually very simple, just fill out a form and send it to the police station. Ok, it’s much more complex for the large ones and we’re not talking about the organizational part and the requests and questions you have to make for health and safety reasons, but in theory you just have to notify the police station at least three days in advance and that’s it. So yes, it’s the police commissioner who decides the life and death of the demonstrations, which he can cancel only in case of risk to safety and public order, in compliance with article 17 of the constitution… Which, you know the TULPS? The consolidated text of the public safety laws (abb. in TULPS), is a law (or rather a body of laws) literally fascist, unconstitutional¹, of wide scope that still regulates a host of regulatory issues, and among these demonstrations. Or rather, ¹the part on demonstrations has been largely declared unconstitutional, but persists in practice as a form of custom, and in fact leaves great space and freedom of decision to the police commissioner. No problem up to this point, as long as the police headquarters are independent and all in all honest, the right to demonstrate is still constitutionally guaranteed. The police headquarters are not super partes. The police headquarters are right-wing, and they do politics. Even though these are anecdotal and subjective experiences, I can confirm that, at least for my region, Friuli Venezia Giulia, the police headquarters, and I mean the decision-making bodies of these, in Udine, Gorizia and Trieste (I don’t have enough experience with Pordenone to be able to speak) are not only right-wing but also actively carry out targeted propaganda actions. For example, some time ago I participated in the Trieste Pride and, I had already spoken about it, the demonstration was at risk because two days before the police headquarters had woken up and said that it was not possible to start from where it had been agreed. It ended up that the start was prescribed for further along the route, literally in the middle of a crossroads. Now, if the gentlemen in question can decide the death and miracles of demonstrations, and if now you can send people inside if "block a road"what’s stopping you from abusing that power to unjustly incarcerate innocent people? Absolutely nothing. ^{a less That the norma non come declared unconstitutional} . And in fact, taking my example into consideration, most of the people had gathered anyway at the original starting point, 5 minutes from the prescribed start, as it was a pedestrian and safer area, now all of these with the anti-Gandhi rule would be inside. This is the problem, demonstrations have always been a source of disagreement but now, with this new rule, it is likely that the anti-government ones will be canceled precisely for fear of reprisals, now increasingly legal.

Here, sorry for the rant/papyrus but I wanted to clarify a bit, since I’ve seen a lot of bullshit flying about the issue, I wanted to explain why it is one of the most serious laws enacted by the government.

Tl;Nl: as long as the public prosecutor’s offices and police headquarters remain politicized, a law like the anti-Gandhi one will always be liberticidal and authoritarian.