by Br. Alexis Bugnolo
The Italian secret police, known as the DIGOS — Divisione Investigazioni Generali ed Operazione Speciali (Division for General Investigation and Special Operations) — who are undercover cops, have been mobilized in the Capital to suppress any political dissent to the dictatorship of Giuseppe Conte.
Sources which have spoken to FromRome.Info have informed me that there may be as many as 1,000 secret police on the streets of Rome seeking to incriminate and arrest citizens for executing their constitutional rights.
The increase in numbers it in itself alarming and represents a fundamental change in the Italian Republic from one based on the observance of the Constitutional order to one which is marked by repressive and often arbitrary police measures.
The DIGOS is a branch of the Polizia di Stato, the State Police, which is the police force subordinated to the Ministry of the Interior. They are distinguished from the Carabinieri, which are the military police under the authority of the Ministry of the Defense.
Agents of DIGOS usually wear no uniform, but they can be identified as single men or men walking in pairs in prominent places of the city, especially seats of government.
In Italy, the Italian State Police have a very ugly reputation, and are considered a quasi-criminal organization of repression. My sources in the Carabinieri confirm this, and suggest that you do not attempt to even meet such individuals.
I personally have had several encounters with the State Police. First at the authorized public Manifestation “Orgoglio Italiano” in October, which sought to affirm that it is legitimate to take pride in being Italian. This event took place in the Piazza di San Giovanni Laterano. And the State Police where on hand to harass the citizens as much as they could on any point of law they could find or trump up. They attempted to harass me, by claiming that the banners for Pope Benedict XVI were illegally attached to a fence.
I my discussion with the DIGOS I found that they were trying to trump up a charge which did not exist. So I mobilized my knowledge of law, and pointed out that their accusation of illegally fixing a banner to a fence had no grounds in Italian law, because first of all the owner of the property must officially denounce the offense to the authorities and only then they could act on that. They refuse this citation of proper procedure.
It was then that I saw that they were indeed a criminal organization.
So I responded with pointing out that their supposition of an offense of illegal fixation of the banners was based on an error of fact, because the banners were affixed to a fence which was on the property of the Vatican, in an extraterritorial possession of the same. At first they would not admit this fact, but after some moments of investigation were enraged that I had checkmated them.
Later on, when some who had borrowed one of the banners had affixed one corner of it to a tree, I found the banner had disappeared. I was told that member of the DIGOS had carried it away. I officially complained, and after about 30 minutes the State Police and DIGOS claim they did not know what happened to it. I never found the banner. It was an act of theft by the State Police of property of Veri Catholici Association.
Something similar happened to me on Feb. 11, 2013, in the Piazza of Saint Peter’s at the Vatican. I was there as a journalist, and no sooner had I interviewed one citizen, that about 8 members of the DIGOS and State Police surrounded me and demanded that I go with them. I ask if was being arrested. They said no. I ask if I was being taken in for questioning, and they said no. I responded that I would not go with them. They said if I did not they would hand cuff me and take me by force. The pool reporter for the Associated Press and her camera crew were eye witnesses to the entire event, but never reported on it. They expressed shock and dismay at the violation of my human rights and rights as a journalist, but did not attempt to help me, other than insisting that they wanted to interview me, which the police refused to permit. Another violation of the rights of the press, in my opinion.
For more than 2 hours I was interrogated with violence in the State Police Station near the Vatican. The violence consisted in being placed in a small room and surrounded by 8 police officers who shouted at me and argued with me with loud voices attempting to get me to say something upon which they could move an allegation of some crime. As I am not so fluent in Italian I could barely understand what they were saying and feared I would say something incorrectly that could lead to my arrest.
They were so ridiculous that they began to write me up for violating immigration laws, claiming that I had been in Italy beyond the 90 days allowed for U.S. Citizens. They attempted this even though I had already presented my Italian Passport showing that I am a citizen ex iure sanguinis of the Italian Republic. Only after I told the office who appeared in charge that I would file a criminal complaint against the officer who signed the charge against me, did he stop and think and admit that you cannot charge an Italian Citizen for illegal entry to Italy!
I was charged rather for impersonating a priest. The claim was that my Franciscan habit is a sign of priesthood! These police men, who claimed to be those who patrol the Vatican areas which are by treaty policed by Italy, seemed not to know the difference between a priest and a friar. I did not believe their claims to ignorance.
On the advice of my attorney in Italy, I returned the next day and presented the documents which showed the legal basis for my actions and comportment. As far as I know all charges were dropped. They had to be, because otherwise I could file a criminal charge for abuse of office under the color of law to make false statements against an Italian citizen in an official document.
During my interrogation, I thankfully had the assistance of an Italian professor, the very one I had interviewed. I had asked him to come with me to the police station because I rightly feared that I would suffer abuse. His help rendered to me freely cost him to miss his train back to northern Italy, at the cost of several hundred Euro. The man I regard as a saint. You can see my interview with him, in Italian, as he denounces Bergoglio as a usurper, here:
So you see, that the Italians are correct. Member of the DIGOS will attempt to falsely accuse citizens and obstruct their constitutional rights of free expression and free assembly.
In my interactions at the Vatican in February, I was convinced and remain convinced that I was personally harassed at the request of the undersecretary of State. In fact, one member of the DIGOS involved in my detention was one of the same who accosted me at the Orgoglio Italiano event in October.
Following my report on the actions of Attorney Edoardo Polacco, as see here:
I have been followed by a member of the DIGOS here at Rome, despite being a journalist.
The DIGOS are working in close concert with the CIA, in my estimation. Because after publishing a few articles about General Pappalardo and his political movement, I have been contacted by agents of the Department of Homeland Security in the USA who, while feigning to be supporters of my work, have sought to know what I am doing in Italy.
So when you think that the dictatorship in one country is not supported by the dictatorship in another, think again.
Finally, for even writing this article, I can be arrested in Italy. But the truth needs to get out to the whole world.
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