Italian politician sues 4000+ YouTube commenters

Davide sez, "Guess how Italian politicians take care of comments on YouTube against them? On 22 October, Cuffaro laid charges with regard to the first 4609 comments on a video clip on You Tube, entitled 'Costanzo Show: Totò Cuffaro aggredisce Giovanni Falcone' (video clip posted on You Tube on 14 January 2007). Antonio Di Pietro decided to pay defence for all."

We will defend you all from Cuffaro (Thanks, Davide!)

• [self-propelled]

  Thanks to the above commenters for the translations and explanations.

  For those interested in Giovanni Falcone, BBC Radio discussed his heroic attempts to prosecute the Mafia in an episode of the series “Great Lives”. It’s still available here. (30 mins).

• [teapot]

  Sounds like it’s time to tear it down, build again

  I know that the .it BBers in here are most probably aware, but you should tell your fellow countrypeeps how the world is perceiving your country.

  If I were the head of corporation I would never consider Italy as a potential place to do business. All we hear about in news media here (Au) is how inept Italy’s politicians are and how bribes or ‘protection money’ are an unfortunate reality in much of Italy.

  Thanks to those who provided added commentary/translation to help us better understand this post.

• [Anonymous]

  Hello people,

  I am one of those who is waiting for the letter to appear in court for having commented on this video. I have never been sued and thought I would never been, but this things can happen. I will use the help provided by Antonio Di Pietro, head of the political party IDV, who is willing to provide lawyers for us to fight the lawsuit.

  I commented the video to defend the honor of judge Giovanni Falcone (in studio with mustaches), who died for defending us from people like cuffaro. I commented on the video because a number of us are at open war with those scum politicians who should not be seating in the Parliament because condemned for corruption, mafia association, bribery, fraud and more.

  How they end up there? In Italy there is a fake democracy. We vote for the party symbol and then the party leaders choose who is sitting where. It is important to understand that the Italian people are hostage of this political class.

  Thanks for showing your solidarity on YouTube.

  Max

• [rivoduck]

  This guy got elected as president of the Sicily region and a couple of years ago has been found guilty of multiple corruption charges.
  After the verdict he called a press conference where he provided a traditional Sicilian breakfast with coffee and cakes. He celebrated the verdict as a big victory since the prosecutors could not legally prove he was a member of Mafia.

  This is Italy, stealing public money is something to be proud of provided your accomplices are not talking so that your Mafia affiliation cannot be proven…

• [Gilbert Wham]

  Yeah, but go to YouTube. Read some comments at random. Don’t you wish you could sue the buggers?

• [The Morgan]

  I wish I could understand what is being said in the video. The guy in glasses is so passionate, and the people on stage just respond by shaking their heads… What’s going on? Is he a nutter? Or are they arseholes?

  Something about someone being a bandit?

• [Anonymous]

  Sorry for my bad English.
  Totò Cuffaro was president of Sicily, in Italy.
  He was investigated for mafia, and thereafter he was found guilty.
  You can read the Wikipedia page in Italian.

  http://translate.google.it/translate?hl=it&sl=it&tl=en&u=http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvatore_Cuffaro

  He attacked Giovanni Falcone, Italian magistrate and a hero who fought against the Mafia and who died after an attack.

  http://translate.google.it/translate?prev=hp&hl=it&js=y&u=http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giovanni_Falcone&sl=it&tl=en&history_state0 =

  From Wikipedia:
  “In October 2009, the repentant Gaspare Romano, businessman convicted abetted Giovanni Brusca, Cuffaro accused of having participated in a luncheon with the Mafia Santino Di Matteo, one of the murderers of Giovanni Falcone”
  …. This is Italy, I am ashamed to be Italian..

• [Anonymous]

  The guy with glasses is Cuffaro, a politician from sicily. He was attacking Giovanni Falcone accusing him of make false accusation on sicilian politicians and Cosa Nostra (mafia) ties.

  This is archive footage.

  Giovanni Falcone was killed by Cosa Nostra in 1992.

  Toto` Cuffaro was elected governor of Sicily in 2001, but found guilty in 2008 of helping Cosa Nostra, it wasn’t possible to proof Cosa Nostra.

• [Stefano Polli]

  I’ll try to briefly translate and explain what’s going on in this video

  the man on stage with mustaches on the right is one of our civil heroes, Giovanni Falcone, an anti-mafia judge that paid his commitment dying in the most terrifying of the cosanostra attacks, the Capaci carnage.
  The yelling guy is Salvatore Cuffaro ten years before becoming the president of Sicily. He is complaining about how journalists and some kind of magistrates (referring to Mr. Falcone) are damaging sicilian politic system and the whole Sicily with their “false” accusations, even more than CosaNostra itself.
  This old video represent the smoking gun of a cultural connection between some areas of the politic system with organized crime, and I’m happy that he’s suing all these people, so that he will have to face publicly the contents of this video

• [Anonymous]

  The Morgan: to sum it up, “the glasses guy” (Cuffaro) rants about how the journalists and the magistrates, judges, etc. on stage have been “slandering” Sicily and its local politicians.

  The interviewer asks “excuse me, but what slanders should we be responsible of? What are you actually criticizing us for?”

  Cuffaro can’t say anything plausible. He rants about very minor mistakes (“that guy said he was the wedding witness for the bride, but he was the groom’s”) and tries to turn the table on the journalists, accusing them of “mafia-like journalism against the best ruling class of all times”.

  Then the insert reminds the raw data about the story: over 80% of all the businesses, shops, companies, etc. in Sicily have been found paying the Mafia “il pizzo” (that is: a large sum of their incomes in order not to be bombed, kidnapped or otherwise harassed). Most of the local politicians are under trial or investigation for connections with the Mafia, etc.

  The final comment says “the horrifying thing is how Cuffaro, a local Mafia politician himself, is trying to pose as a common citizen, and what kind of support he had from the (probably paid for this) public”.

  All of this becomes even more horrible when you learn that the head-shaking guys on stage were the very judges that tried to stop the Mafia in Italy during those years, and were slain in bombing attacks shortly thereafter.

  The “Antonio di Pietro” person mentioned in the story is another ex-magistrate who became famous in Italy for exposing an immense ring of corruption that encompassed almost 100% of all the medium-large and State enterprises and politicians. The following crisis of the entire State apparatus paved the way for the current politicians – even more corrupt, but without the decency of hiding their wrongdoings.
  Di Pietro is currently the leader of a small political party which has the peculiarity of being *the only one* without condemned criminals within its ranks.