A railway employee in Milan took to the public address system on a train to admonish gypsy criminals, using insulting language to order them off the train. A predictable politically correct firestorm arose, making it likely that the insulter of gypsies would be fired. However, as an indication of how much the political winds have shifted in Italy, Interior Minister Matteo Salvini spoke out in defense of the employee.
Many thanks to FouseSquawk for translating this article from Il Fatto Quotidiano:
Trenord: The loudspeaker announcement of the train: “Gypsies, you have broken the (balls)…”
Speaker identified, Salvini defends her
The words were pronounced on the train that covers the route from Milan to Mantua. The person who reported it is a researcher, 32 years old, from Cremona, who works in the Milanese capital. “This was unacceptable language.” The company: “Unspeakable and serious.” The conductor risks being fired. The minister defends her. “Instead of worrying about aggressions against passengers, they worry about messages (sent) to the molesters.”
“Passengers are asked not to give money to molesters.” And not even to the gypsies. “Get off at the next stop because you have broken balls.” It was the announcement made by loudspeaker on the Trenord regional train, which on Tuesday was traveling from Milan to Cremona and Mantua. All of the passengers heard it. Reporting it, however, was a 32-year-old researcher from Cremona who works in Milan. “I was returning home,” she says. “I heard those words, so serious, so I looked immediately at my watch.” The voice was feminine. The traveler also wonders if “both the use of the word ‘gypsies’ and the subsequent ‘you have broken…’ do not clearly constitute discriminatory language.
“It cannot be accepted on the part of a public official in the exercise of their function and in the context of a public service financed with the taxes of the (taxpayers). I therefore demand that Trenord disassociate itself and publicly apologize for the incident.”
Taking the side of the employee, who risks losing her job, however, is the interior minister. “Instead of worrying about the aggressions against the passengers, controllers and conductors, someone is worried about messages against the molesters. To travel safely is a priority,” wrote Matteo Salvini on Twitter.
Once they had arrived at the station, some commuters sent a complaint to Trenord with a detailed explanation about what occurred. Trenord, at first, put out a more prudent statement. “The device from which these announcements are put out is not in the cabin. It is also accessible to passengers who through tampering could use it.” Then, after some checks excluding tampering, the company thanked “the passenger for the prompt report,” defining the occurrence as “serious and unspeakable”. The company, which operates trains in Lombardy, has begun an internal investigation and has identified the employee who spoke those words. Measures are being evaluated. The punishment could go as far as firing.
A colleague, who contacted Ilfatto.it and prefers to remain anonymous, while not justifying the woman’s announcement, says that one must understand it: it refers to numerous episodes that every day degenerate and whose protagonists are groups of immigrants who try to travel without tickets. Still, in this case, as stated, it concerned Roma (gypsies), who for the most part are Italian citizens. At any rate, in these cases, the conductors, continued the Trenord employee, politely ask them to get up and get off at the next stop and receive in response insults, where the word “racist” is thrown out not without effect.
Sorry, but this report is incoherent.
==QUOTE== “Passengers are asked not to give money to molesters.” And not even to the gypsies. “Get off at the next stop because you have broken balls.” ==UNQUOTE==
Maybe the Italian text makes sense, but this English does not. For one thing, in “you have broken balls”, is “broken” a verb-form, or an adjective? And what does “balls” mean in this context? Is some man being told, “Your testicles are damaged”? Are passengers being told, “You have damaged some spherical train equipment”? What is the nature of the molestation? Importuning passengers for money? Destroying train equipment? And why are passengers, not molesters, being asked to get off at the next stop? Were the molesters arrested?
The relevant Italian seems to be: “I passeggeri sono pregati di non dare monete ai molestatori. E nemmeno agli zingari: scendete alla prossima fermata, perché avete rotto i coglioni”.”
The “zingari” part seems to refer to gypsies, guessing from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFX1NO-gsBk
Just googled rotto i coglioni: the English idiom is ‘I’m fed up with you’. A little extra intensifying word wouldn’t go astray, but this is a family site.
“Rotto le palle”, it is an Italian insult, we have enough of you, you have molested our testicles. Something like this. They wrongly translate it “broken the balls.”
BTW, since 1985 Gypsies have gradually changed their name, under the suggestion of a professor from Texas. It was Gypsy, became Rrom, then Rom. Then Roma singular, Romani plural. Then just Romani. Anybody’s guess where this is going?
Rromi are disgusting , thieves and criminals that are all over in Europe east or west alike.They came from India originally and they are nasty creatures.
They nearly killed my brother in his twenties, wantonly. Am I supposed to love them? Another young man from my village was killed in the same town. The perpetrators were never found. I suspect they were Gypsies.
This Texas professor has handheld Gypsies into the new name, Romani. Not long before they claim to be the original Romanians.
Sounds like a perfectly reasonable announcement to me.
It looks like part of the trouble was a too-literal translation of an Italian expression, added to an insufficiently explanatory article to begin with (e.g., what happened to the molesters?).
The comments reminded me of an interview of the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who on TV once demonstrated an Italian gesture consisting of sweeping the upper side of your fingers forward under your chin. He did not explain it, but I finally found it explained as gesture #9 in
https://www.keepcalmandtravel.com/top-15-italian-gestures-including-the-rude-ones/
I remember when the Gypsies came to town 30 years ago. I formed an opinion then and it has not changed. They are predators on the elderly and vulnerable, and should be escorted to the city limits pronto !
Every Summer Gypsies come to the cemeteries in my mother’s home town and steal flowers off graves to sell in the flea market. This year they stole the flowers from my father’s grave. Gypsies also hit the county with their paving and roof repair scams. They swindled my great aunt out of $2000 and left her with a damaged roof that eventually collapsed. My opinion of them is not favorable.
I have a liberal friend who recounted in horror that the Romanian authorities exclude gypsy children from public education simply because the gypsy children systematically steal the school supplies of the other children. I mentioned that I had actually seen videos on YouTube where the gypsies were teaching their children to steal and pickpocket. I got no response. Leftists simply do not engage when their world view encounters friction. Except, if they outnumber you, they can scream and verbally attack you personally.
The woman head of the Roma Rights Organization in Europe turned out to be one of the biggest of the Roma gangsters. They have hoards of children they train to pick pockets, steal from tourists, even prostitute themselves. These are kept in dormitory like hovels and turned loose daily in the city to prey.
A Canticle to Khan
London swings like a pendulum do
Muggers on mopeds two by two
Westminster Abbey the tower of Big Ben
Your pockets being picked by Roma children
With apologies to Roger Miller.