Naples - There is no peace for the memory of the innocent victims of crime. In Piazza Nazionale, the mural dedicated to little Noemi, the girl seriously injured in 2019 by a stray bullet during a Camorra ambush, has again been targeted and vandalized.
The work, already restored in 2022 due to previous acts of vandalism, was defaced with spray paint by unknown perpetrators, but this time the act carries a further, very serious offense.
Alongside the disfigurement of the child's face, the vandals wrote explicitly offensive graffiti targeting the memory of Santo Romano, the 19-year-old man brutally shot to death in San Sebastiano al Vesuvio last November 2024, guilty of attempting to break up a fight to defend a friend. A double affront aimed at those who represent the anti-Camorra movement.
Local and national politicians immediately intervened in the sad affair, with MP Francesco Emilio Borrelli and the Europa Verde councilor of the IV Municipality, Giampiero Perrella.
Their words are a harsh denunciation: "These are cowardly acts committed by those who were evidently born and raised in criminal contexts where ignorance and violence reign supreme," the two representatives thunder.
The bitterness stems from the observation of a "double standard" in the city: "A segment of the city, ready to take action when we called for the removal of murals commemorating child criminals and Camorra shrines, isn't outraged when similar acts are committed that offend the memory of innocent victims," Borrelli and Perrella emphasize.
The request is now peremptory and encompasses multiple fronts: the immediate removal of the offensive graffiti and the prompt restoration of the mural. But above all, it calls for increased surveillance of Piazza Nazionale, an area they say is "often at the mercy of juvenile gangs who commit acts of vandalism."
The work dedicated to Noemi must remain a warning, they conclude, "that reminds everyone of the consequences of the Camorra's presence in these territories, ready to shoot without stopping even in the presence of innocent women and children."
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Comments (3)
A city without hope
You are nothings because calling you shits would offend the fodder for our land so you are nothing
It's very sad that this mural, meant to remember an innocent little girl, has been defaced again. Offensive graffiti only increases the pain of those who have lost someone to violence. More respect is needed.