Italy has been trapped by a vigilante who calls himself “Fleximan” and who has set out to knock down as many radars and cameras to monitor traffic as possible.
Fleximan has already claimed credit for at least 15 successful attacks, and a special task force from the police and four different prosecutors' offices are investigating his actions.
The anonymous vandal began leaving his trail of destruction months ago in the northeast of the country, as more and more cameras were taken out of service.
Photos of his actions were then spread on social media, along with the nickname “flessibile,” taken from the Italian word to identify electric cutters, the tool he has primarily used to knock down cameras.
A kind of “modern Robin Hood”
The campaign seems to reflect the social unrest that exists due to the proliferation of speed cameras, whose multiplication has not served to contain road deaths.
The number of people who lose their lives in traffic accidents in Italy is much higher than in other European countries.
What's not clear is whether Fleximan is one man or two, or whether he has become many due to copycat vandals.
Police in the northwestern region of Piedmont said they had charged a 50-year-old suspect, but most of the attacks have been reported in the Veneto area in the northeast of the country.
At the scene of one of his latest attacks, the anonymous vigilante left a handwritten message: “Fleximan is on the way.”
The vandal's methods are consistent and the chorus of approval grows on social media, where Fleximan is treated as a kind of modern-day Robin Hood.
So much so that a street artist from Padua called Evyrein has dedicated his latest work to Fleximan. It is a graffiti that shows the character that actress Uma Thurman played in the movie “Kill Bill,” holding a sword in one hand and a severed speed camera in the other.
Just to raise
Autovelox, the name given in Italy to the system of cameras and radars used by the police to detect traffic violations, has always been controversial in Europe. But Italy has the largest number on the continent with an estimated more than 11,000.
This is a third more than the 7,700 in the United Kingdom and almost three times more than the 4,700 in Germany.
This likely explains some of Italians' anger toward speed detectors, and mayors have said they will not replace the vandalized cameras any time soon. The official reason is that they want to calm the situation.
Fines imposed on drivers have risen sharply in recent years, with Florence receiving $25 million in 2022, according to Italian consumer group Codacons, followed by Milan, Genoa and Rome.
But Italy has an unimpressive record on road safety.
The European Transport Safety Council estimates the number of deaths in traffic accidents in Italy at 54 per million inhabitants in 2022, almost double the 26 per million in the United Kingdom and 37 per million in Spain.
Not all are applause
For Paola Di Caro, political journalist for the Italian newspaper “Corriere della Sera”, these figures are very personal and have directly challenged Fleximan's narrative of defending people's freedom with his devastating experience.
His son Francesco Valdiserri, 18, died after being hit by a speeding driver while waiting for a bus in Rome in October 2022.
“I would just like [Fleximan] “I felt for one day, just one day, what I feel when I go to lay flowers where my son was killed (…) and then in (the cemetery in) Verano, where it was closed forever behind the poured concrete,” he declared.
While heading to his son's grave, he told the BBC that Fleximan's actions are reflective of a culture that holds that rules are not for everyone.
“People hail him as a hero, but for me Fleximan is simply embarrassing. The idea that these actions can be done for fun (…) is simply unbearable for me. It's like they are making fun of my son,” he added.
Adding milk to the fire
The controversy over speed cameras has also entered Italian politics. The leader of the League, the nationalist Matteo Salvini, has seen an opportunity before the regional and European parliamentary elections.
Salvini, who is also transport minister and deputy prime minister, has criticized Bologna mayor Matteo Lepore for introducing a new speed limit of 30 kilometers per hour throughout the city.
The speed reduction in Bologna was approved by Salvini's own Ministry and is guided by data from the European Commission, which shows that the risk of death for pedestrians is eight times greater at 50 kilometers per hour than at 30.
Bologna's new speed limit has sparked an outcry from drivers, and a campaign to put the measure to a referendum has been backed by more than 52,000 people.
“The problem is that the 30 km/h limit is too low,” complained Guendalina Furini, a 22-year-old student who started the petition.
“It takes too long to cross the city and the real problem is not solved, which is people driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs,” he explained.
She challenged the mayor at a recent meeting, so far without success.
Although she admitted that she is not an expert on security issues, she wants her voice to be heard.
“We have won the right to divorce and abortion through referendums, why shouldn't we decide it that way too? “This is not the democracy that I am studying at university,” she concluded.
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BBC-NEWS-SRC: https://www.bbc.com/mundo/articles/c101vp3gj1vo, IMPORTING DATE: 2024-01-28 15:52:03
STEFANO FASANO – BBC NEWS, ROME
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