A terrible crime against a vulnerable victim generates massive media coverage. When the suspect turns out to be a foreigner, part of an immigration flow from a bordering country drawn by the relatively high wages and labor needs at the bottom of the pyramid, politicians at all levels rush to assure the public by promises of crackdowns against dangerous members of this suspect class.
Its an all too familiar story in America over the last several decades, only its playing out in Italy. The arrest of a Romanian suspect in the murder and molestation of an Italian woman last week led to a great deal of public turmoil about immigration and crime. The Center-Left government of Romano Prodi responded by authorizing municipalities to deport immigrants they considered dangerous (apparently with no hearing of any sort). As many as three dozen were deported. The government maintains it will resist calls from the right for mass deportation.
Read the reporting of Ian Fisher in the November 8th edition of the NYTimes
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