fires to scare the neighborhood

48 hours after the fire at the Baraka Bistrot, the fourth from April 25, the third in the last month, Centocelle wakes up with more questions than answers. What is happening is shrouded in mystery: on the one hand, those who investigate do not lean, work in the shadows, maintaining the utmost secrecy; on the other, the neighborhood questions itself, multiplies the hypotheses. And all this scares those who have decided, for work or to live, to put down roots here in this neighborhood, the last one accessible by a generation rejected by the city in the hands of real estate speculation.

The invisible enemy

On Saturday at 8.00 am outside the Baraka the media circus had not yet arrived. Present residents and some merchants. The concept that everyone agreed was: "Here in Centocelle such a thing had never been seen even 30 years ago". Certainly a lot of drugs, muggings, some murder, in short, a neighborhood in the past that was anything but peaceful, but such a sequence is new. Another concept, which is a question: "But what do they want from the locals? Since they opened in Centocelle they have done only good ". Already, residents, elderly and young, I agree: the neighborhood is changing, it has changed, for the better and the locals bring security, the possibility of walking, even at a late hour, with the certainty of meeting people and, in general, of keeping that sense of community alive, a trademark of a Rome that was and a Centocelle that wants to continue to be.

The enemy is invisible and for this reason, rather than frightening, it displaces and renders impotent. At the moment. Lace racket, political motive, mythomaniac, organized crime: today everything is plausible. Attack after attack but the hypotheses, instead of decreasing, increase and the sense of loss begins to create some fear.

From the political track to crime

It was started on April 25th, with the certainty ofFascist act against the Electric Sheep, an openly anti-fascist bookshop cafeteria. A few light bulbs had lit the pyre's pyre's burner55, with the hypothesis of criminality taking up space. Wednesday, after the second Sheep fire, the focus had shifted on the pushers of via delle Palme (and those who feed and manage them) with someone (few) still convinced of the political act. From Saturday, from the attack on the Baraka, the certainties in this sense are hiding, while the black run seems to be setting.

A unique direction

Investigators think that there is a unique direction. There is a track, according to RomaToday concrete, which links everything to criminal gangs linked to the Camorra who are trying to assert themselves on a territory that is tempting due to the presence of premises (and the consequent need for loans and the possibility of clean up dirty money) and customers for peddling.

Why hit the premises?

But why hit the premises and not impose themselves directly on the territory? Also on this the investigators are trying to understand something of it: they don't result threats, neither requests of lace or loans to choke. In practice, the crime on the premises, certainly not on those set on fire, the hands did not put them, but has every intention of putting them there.

Centocelle, not just cocktails and aperitifs: the CentoCellule network tells its story

Centocelle Spring

There is evidence on a good part of Centocelle's nightlife: the premises are opened by young people who have invested their savings by betting on relaunching the neighborhood. A bet won in many cases, for what we have described as a real one Centocelle Spring. Also here the locals do network (see Centocellule), many are politicized. In short, the feeling is that, in most cases, there is no crime and that the cultural and economic fabric of the neighborhood has antibodies to reject it.

The spring of Centocelle: this is how the "village nightlife" revives the neighborhood

Fear to weaken the neighborhood

The dish, however, has become rich and now the criminal organizations want to get their hands on it, hitting the good part that brought the Primavera to Centocelle and the one that makes the net. A war with a covered face, to frighten, displace, render impotent, to weaken those antibodies. A strategy that seems to hit the mark, with the Electric Sheep not intended to reopen and with Marco Nacchia, manager of the Baraka, who on Saturday and yesterday pronounced words that seem to surrender to the criminal strategy: "If we do not know the enemy, how do we reopen it? We reopen and then find ourselves again like this? Life is one and we must go on".