Berlusconite politician caught slashing disabled man's tires

Antonio Piazza, a Milanese government official from Italy's People of Freedom party (that's Silvio Berlusconi's party), has made headlines after he was caught on CCTV slashing the tires of a disabled person's car. Piazza had been in the habit of parking his car in a disabled spot near his office. When a police officer fined him and made him move his car so that a disabled person could use the spot, he returned a few hours later and slashed the guy's tires. He forgot that there were CCTVs on the scene. Here's The Guardian's Tom Kington:

Piazza at first tried to appeal against his parking fine, claiming he had given a lift to a disabled person, but has now grudgingly resigned from his job running a regional housing agency under pressure from his party, claiming: "I made a mistake, but there are people who behave even worse."
As Italy's fiscal police inspect local government accounts up and down the country in the wake of the Lazio scandal, a new report has revealed tax evasion is still endemic among Italy's professions – finding that psychologists fail to declare 40% of their earnings, rising to 42.7% for lawyers. Italians who do pay taxes were shocked to learn of the arrest of the head of a tax-collecting agency on suspicion of embezzling €100m, some of which he spent on lavish parties in Portofino.

Italian politician slashes disabled driver's tyres in parking dispute

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MORE: accessibility • automotive • christ what an asshole • corruption • italy

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The Snowden Principle

http://www.facebook.com/people/Mark-Duanburge/100000313244887 Mark Duanburge

Would he have still done this if he had noticed the cameras? Anyway, I’m glad that they were able to use them to identify him after the crime.
Mark_Frauenfelder

“I made a mistake, but there are people who behave even worse.” The rallying cry of all Tea Party candidates
- Brainspore
  
  The beauty of that excuse is that it works for all crimes up to and including genocide (as long as you don’t break the world record for genocide, in which case you probably will never have to face trial anyway).
  - EH
    
    It works until you run out of people who you think behave worse, at which point you start wondering who of your own are merely imperfect. Such is the suicidal trajectory of all fascisms.
- Petzl
  
  C’mon, criticize TP candidates (rightly) for being simple-minded idiots, not for being amoral and depraved.
info

Snippet missing from this report, but included on Italian newspapers. The final comment of Piazza was: “So what if I had parked illegally? I have been parking like this for three years and nothing ever happened.”

You may also want to notice that piazza’s car was a latest model Jaguar, while the disabled (missing one leg) man has a very basic small car, and he simply and politely called the traffic police, waiting for it to remove the offending vehicle. “I only use reserved parkings when absolutely needed, and my also disabled wife never does out of respect of those who need them most” he added.

Oh, and about the “suspect of embezzlement” official… He was already found guilty of similar charges in 2001 and 2009. But he’s a personal friend of Berlusconi, so…
- SomeGuyNamedMark
  
  Right, so the fact that he was never challenged makes it ok in his mind. What is he, 5 yrs old?
  - JProffitt71
    
    Yes. He might as well be.
http://disqus.com/Kimmoth/ Kimmo

It seems privileged Italians tend to have a fairly insufferable degree of entitlement going on…

Might be best just to put em all up against the wall and let Catholic Jesus sort em out.
- SamSam
  
  As opposed to privileged anyone-else?
  - http://disqus.com/Kimmoth/ Kimmo
    
    As if there’s no national variation on that score…
    
    I’m not gonna be cramped by a cheap shot.
- niktemadur
  
  Il uno per cento.
  - Antinous / Moderator
    
    And here I thought it was all fixed when Rome expelled the Tarquins.
    - niktemadur
      
      In that case, it would be “unus per centum”.
http://www.facebook.com/people/James-Agenbroad/100002463876063 James Agenbroad

I guess CCTV DOES occasionally catch criminals.
- SomeGuyNamedMark
  
  It doesn’t catch them (it took someone reporting it first) but it sure helps rub their noses in it.
http://www.disoriented.net/ angusm

At least he was faithful to the ethos of his party.
- fuzzyfuzzyfungus
  
  Are you sure? Wouldn’t having one of your harem of dubiously legal prostitutes slash the guy’s tires for you be more faithful to the example of the master?
- emiliano bossi
  
  he was forced to resign, if it was up to him he’d still be in the office. his words. EDIT no wait i got the joke
Vickie Kostecki

Interesting that tax evasion is endemic in certain strata of Italian society, and they’re in dire financial straits. haven’t they been saying the same thing about Greece, that they have a culture of tax evasion as well? So it might not be 100% mismanagement & bank fraud that is causing the financial issues.
- Ashen Victor
  
  Same in Spain, the more you earn the more you have to pay an administrative to “edit” your earnings.
- IronEdithKidd
  
  Tax evasion is the main hobby of the 1%. It’s a world wide problem.
Ashen Victor

“I made a mistake, but there are people who behave even worse.”

Yeah, he didn’t shoot him in the face with a shotgun. Release him now!
richard77

The icing on the cake is that according to some reports, he asked that particular parking spot to be reserved to disabled people, probably to be sure to found it free most of the time.
And the other guy (the tax collector), had contracts with local authorities with a 30% share for him of collected taxes, but thanks to his greed the company failed even if the stole those 100M€.
They the worse kind of evil, the incompetent one.
- EH
  
  He should be sentenced to amputation.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001453923525 Luca Lucakiss Calabrese

This is the car… http://www.iovivoaroma.it/notizie-de-attualita/roma-senatore-pdl-lascia-la-ferrari-sulle-strisce-il-vigile-non-lo-multa.htm
Looks like a Ferrari :
- SamSam
  
  Not the same car, just owed by another jerk with the first name “Antonio.”
Boris Bartlog

‘Italians who do pay taxes were shocked to learn of the arrest…’
I might possibly believe that they were shocked by the *arrest*, but I can’t believe the *crime* would shock any Italian… my brother lives there and it’s not like Italians don’t know what’s going on.
wibbled_pig

Having lived in italy for 12 years, the only thing that shocks me is how little reaction there is to these sort of things.. a few weeks of polemics, then it’s back to business as usual.