Palermo’s historic center residents besieged by crime: “We are ready to protest”

Last Updated: September 8, 2024

Palermo, residenti del centro storico assediati dal crimine: «Siamo pronti a protestare»

The historic center continues to be the scene of violence and degradation: from drug dealing, which flows through the narrow streets of Ballarò and the high Maqueda street, to robberies often carried out by drug addicts in search of money to buy doses of crack, cocaine and heroin, which seem to be back on the menu of pushers.

Baby gangs fighting for territory and few controls close the circle of fire within which residents and traders find themselves, now surrounded and cornered by an out-of-control microcrime.

However, many, despite threatening to leave the historic center, want to raise their heads as has already been done in the past and return to the streets to once again demand greater security and territorial presence. In short, prevention.

“The story is always the same,” emphasizes Antonio Nicolao, vice president of the first district. “Residents and traders are under siege and since that famous February 23, the day when Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi announced that there would be more security in the city, no improvements have been seen. There has been no increase in law enforcement and we only obtained presence after the murder in via Maqueda of the nineteen-year-old of Tunisian origin. There is a lot of weariness among residents and business owners, but also a desire for change and from next week we will work to return to the square to protest for the right to security.”

In short, despite being surrounded by syringes, drug addicts, prostitution, thefts and all kinds of aggressions, those who live in the historic center are ready to reclaim it and once again launch their cry for help to the institutions: “Stabbing is just the latest episode in a long list,” continues Nicolao. “We are tired, we demand more attention and above all prevention. We are told that the problems are the same as in many other large metropolitan cities but that does not mean that everything is fine and that we should get used to all this. We want answers and concrete actions.”