They surround him, attack him, threaten him, then force him to kiss their hands: this is the scene, halfway between the disturbing and the pathetic attempt to imitate the criminal rituals of adults, carried out by a pack of tyrants in Sirignano, a small town between the Avellino region and the Neapolitan region. The children, all aged 12 or 13, after attacking the victim by pinning him against the wall and showering him with slaps and punches, decided that the feat deserved to be immortalized. They thus shot a three and a half minute video which, also released by the Neapolitan AVS parliamentarian Francesco Emilio Borrelli, has sparked much discussion.
The Mayor's Defense
But while many are condemning this cowardly enterprise in the comments, the gang of would-be criminals also includes those who speak out in their favor. And not just anyone, but the mayor of the city, Antonio Colucci: “Nothing serious happened, things between children, they argued and made a little film,” he told The press. But have you seen the video? No. “I didn’t see it,” the officer informed me. “He told me the boys were playing and they fought, that’s all. Children’s stuff,” Colucci continued.
Borrelli's comment
Children who, after being beaten, ordered: “If you tell your mother, we will hang you like Christ on the cross.” Colucci downplayed it by appealing to two arguments: the children come from good families and go to school together. “I know them, they are 12-13 years old, they are all children of good people. Violence? Well, but children do a 'disservice' from time to time, you know, but they are not bullies at all. It was a small argument. They go to school together, they go to middle school,” he explained. Borrelli is of a different opinion, who underlines in a note the urgency of “countering harassment and cyberbullying, increasingly widespread phenomena that have already caused serious damage in the past.”
The phenomenon
And again: “The tyrants must be identified and punished as they deserve, as well as their families who, I hope, will not shy away from their serious responsibilities.” On the other hand, harassment and cyberbullying still seem too difficult to eradicate. According to the Indifesa Observatory file, created a few months ago by Terre des Hommes in collaboration with the postal police and the OneDay group, on the occasion of Safer Internet Day, 65% of the young people surveyed (between 14 and 26 years old) said they had suffered some form of violence. Among them, 63% had suffered harassment and 19% cyberbullying.
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