While the news on TV reported on the ignored death of Petru Barladeanu, who was killed in tube station in Napoli while the passers by remained indifferent, another Romanian news came into the spotlight. A Romanian Gypsy ignored a dog caught between the tube station's escalator's steps. This time, the passers-by reacted.
The Romanian Gypsy was on the escalator in Termini tube station, together with a puppy. The Romanian did not lift up the puppy when the mobile stairs ended, and the dog caught its paws between the metallic platform and the stairs. The man left him to his agony, the events read in Leggo, one of the most popular free papers in Rome.
The people announced the station's authorities, who caught up with the Romanian Gypsy in the square outside the station. He was surrounded by an angry mob, ready to lynch him. The man, who already owned a record, was taken to the Police station, accused of animal mistreatment and released later. The dog was rescued and treated by a veterinary and is now outside any danger.
The article was also published on Leggo's website and it attracted violent reactions: "Out with Gypsies and Romanians and everybody like them, dirty and stinking"; "The police should have allowed the mob to lynch him"; "Let's send them all home, especially the Romanians, who are all abject"; "Let's catch them and throw their heads between the mobile steps" the comments read. The worst of all read: "Bastards: viva gas chambers against human s..., viva Napoli's torches”, reminding the episode when a Romanian Gypsy camp in Napoli was burnt down by locals.
One comment remarked that, when Petru Barladeanu - a Romanian Gypsy - was left to die in a tube station, it didn't seem to attract much attention.
Il Giornale called famous Romanian football trainer Lucescu "the Gypsy coach". It also featured to the racist event in Northern Ireland as "The Romanian hate bursts out in Ulster, too".
President of Romanians in Italy Party, solicitor Giancarlo Germani, submitted an intimation to the Anti-discrimination Office from the Italian Government (UNAR), where he noted that the press reported the case in a non-impartial manner. "If a wounded dog becomes more important than a Romanian left to die in general indifference, then there is a serious problem with the Italian mass media. I requested the start of an investigation that would decide whether or not articles in Il Giornale are instigating to racial hate and xenophobia", the solicitor said.
