Repubblika expresses its regret at the state’s treatment of homeless people. These are people who are deprived of so many basic needs that they need compassion and help to eat and sleep in shelter. Instead, they were arrested and prosecuted harshly as if they had committed violent crimes.
While we understand that the police acted on the basis of laws, we state that a country without the basic compassion and generosity that cares for the poorest in it is truly a country without a sense of community.
We appeal for humanity and decency. And we join the appeals to address the causes of extreme poverty, not punish its victims. These people arrested and convicted yesterday are victims of growing inequality, institutionalized racism, and economic systems that exploit people and then throw them away.
We want to live in a republic where laws are there to punish those who do wrong to others and not to deprive those who have nothing left but freedom. And we want to live in a republic where we take care of the least among us and where no one is left so alone that they end up having to sleep outside and beg for a piece of bread.
When people have to sleep outside, the state that is supposed to take care of them has failed and we have all failed by not ensuring solidarity among ourselves.