Abdul Salam Guibre, a 19 year-old Burkina Faso native but Italian citizen, is dead after being attacked with bar blows on Zuretti Street in Milan.
The issue at hand, whether the omicide was racially motivated or an unfortunate set of coincidences, or whether the answer lies in the politics displayed by the new government, exercising exagerated security measures, capable of ploughing through policies held in place by a previous administration.
The reality speaks for itself, a deceased young man, a father with a son in prison, the Milanese administration discussing the exclusion of children of undocumented immigrants from day nurseries, or not allowing them access to medical care at Emergency Rooms.
The local government finds it difficult in giving this incident the importance it deserves, representing a warning signal, displaying signs of the ills of the present political environment: it’s from these things, seen in their totality, that one can measure the effectiveness of political choices.
Cities whose racial tensions continue to build, leading to an increase in homicides, are certainly not a great achievement for those leading with an iron fist; where the safety factor is lacking, thus not making its citizens feel secure.
Abdul was young man, who brought with him, like a lot of boys the same age, the richness of his parents’ journey as immigrants, of the many years that passed with the hopes of one day realizing the dream of leaving their country behind for a better life. Abdul represented the anger of a person that grew up here, but always labeled an immigrant, although bearing an Italian citizenship, “a second generation immigrant”, as it is said.
The answer to this dramatic event is apparent to the youth of this country. A sign that in their future, in the generations that will follow, the confrontations on a political playing field on the co-existence in what has now become a multicultural society.
Beginning as early as Monday afternoon, sit-ins, torchlight processions and rallys have been organized by various student groups in Milan and its provinces. On Thursday morning, school students will take to the streets for a demostration against every type of racism, followed by another rally scheduled for Saturday against racism and xenophobia.
On the matter of the murder of Abdul, and not labeling it a racially motivated omicide, I quote some words of lawyer Mirco Mazzalli:
“The sentences screamed during the beating-up would lean towards the applicability of the aggravation for the racial motivation on the murder, in reality the context is perhaps more complicated and from the legal point of view we can say that the law requires presumptions more complicated and this is maybe the problem. But the real problem remains another one. It’s the context where this episode matured. It seems that the beating-up may find a justification in a climate of hate and of ”do-it-yourself justice” fomented by the bi-partisan security phobias of these years. These boys – and also this circumstance hasn’t been verified yet – stole biscuits. This is insane”
Translated by Alessia Bertin