Antonio Manganelli, head of the Police, has responded to the open letter that I wrote to him on the blog. It’s an important gesture, not one that is frequently seen from anyone representing the institutions. Manganelli says he wants to discuss my proposals: a means of identifying the individuals in the security forces and public meetings with the representatives of the Police to bring closer together the citizens in regular clothes with the citizens in uniform. In September I will try to get both proposals off the ground. Manganelli explains to us that no one can be suspended unless they are definitively found guilty, thus it’s not possible to suspend the people responsible for the death of Aldrovandi, found guilty on Appeal, and Alessandro Perugini, who is today a director in Alessandria who delivered a kick to the face of a young defenceless lad lying on the ground and who was caught on camera while he accomplished his heroic act. It seems that these gentlemen are in service to “protect” the citizens. Is it that we need a law to suspend them? Well then this law has to be done urgently and I will do what is possible to make this happen. Why has no one yet put this forward? What do the trades unions of the Police think about it? Anyone who sullies the uniform puts all his colleagues in difficulty and undermines the trust of the citizens. He cannot remain in his post. I thank Antonio Manganelli for his response and I send him my best greetings. Beppe Grillo

"Dear Beppe Grillo,
I am happy to respond to your letter and it pleases me to start from a point that you yourself have underlined.
”Thousands of police officers are risking their lives every day, and often they lose their lives, to protect citizens.” It is really like that. This is the Police, a democratic body demilitarised for the last thirty years and with union officials that are attributable to the various areas of thinking in our country. The workers of the police each day, in every part of Italy, perform true acts of heroism that confirm their love and closeness for their neighbour; unfortunately, the media communications do not always give them the right prominence.
Obviously, I agree with you when you write “They don’t deserve to be associated with those who have cast a blemish on the uniform and the whole organisation to which they belong, during the G8.”
OK. However, we are obliged to follow the rules of the judicial regulations in force in our country. Meanwhile, “those who have cast a blemish on the uniform” by violating the law, this has to be declared in a defined verdict, that is the decision of the Court of Cassation, that over a period of ten years has not yet arrived. I am not hiding behind a finger. Apart from the responsibilities of those who came to Genoa to make war and devastation, guiltily cancelled in a sweep of the sponge even from the recollections of the tenth anniversary, there are certainly responsibilities that can be attributable to people in the Police. I am continually thinking and I am well aware (I am referring for example, to those who brought false evidence into the Diaz School) that all that has undermined the necessary relationship of trust between the citizen and those called to protect him. Our law, however, says that a disciplinary procedure in relation to a police officer cannot start off if there are ongoing criminal proceedings against him and if a a disciplinary procedure has started, it has to be immediately suspended while waiting for the definition of the criminal proceedings. Is there someone who doesn’t like this law? This is what the regulation lays down and it is an obligation for each one of us.
Furthermore, the law says that up until the final verdict, that is the one given by the Court of Cassation, innocence is always a presumption. Do we not like even this law? Often however we call on it when someone is "executed" before the end of the proceedings at every level and the unappealable verdict is delivered. Right now there are police officers who are defendants but not definitively convicted. Thus, they have to be kept on, in accordance with the law, not because of my will, innocent until the Court of Cassation has the final word, after an interminable number of years during which time the media gridiron has anyway given an “advance application of the sentence", that is unacceptable for anyone who turns out to be “not guilty” as a result of the definitive judgement.
Have they "made progress in their career"? When the criteria of years of service was met, their names were included in the names of those considered for promotion, together with their colleagues, for the activity carried out overall in the twenty or thirty years of service that each one had. There are those who have seen their grading advance, others have not, according to the ordinary procedures. No one became “Questor of Genoa”, they were all considered not as “convicts” because as I have said they are not.
I accept with great interest the invitation to discuss the proposals put forward in your letter as soon as possible, as I have already mentioned on the telephone, because I find it to be truly a priority, the need to re-establish the proper relationship between the citizen and the police officer, wherever this is damaged, for any reason. I’m taking the opportunity to send you a cordial greeting.” Antonio Manganelli