Thread by @annasergi

🧵Just read the latest by @marklowen on #ndrangheta based on @NicolaGratteri, maxi trial etc and I want to share some thoughts, as from the BBC I expect more. First of all, outmost respect for Mr Gratteri, his work is precious and whose expertise is key bbc.com/news/world-eur…

2/ The article does not say anything new. The Magistrate vs the Mob narrative has been around since 2019/2020 when RinascitaScott trial started. The only new element is that now, for the public, the trial is known as 'Mancuso MaxiTrial', yet another fiction in this narrative.

3/ The numbers on the #ndrangheta income are mythological and have been disputed many times with data at hands. It would be about time that media stopped fuelling this myth. SIMILARLY, the control of 80% of #cocaine trade, it's old data and unrealistic.

4/ the narrative on 'ndrangheta secretive nature as 'unknown' mafia when compared to Sicilian Cosa Nostra and Neapolitan Camorra is frankly so done that we need a new word for done. If you don't know the 'ndrangheta today and you have interest in #mafia, you live under a rock

5/ Creating the sense of mystique and fuelling the narrative of secrecy around the #ndrangheta, by saying things like "the biggest blow to the group in its history, the so-called "maxi trial" in Calabria" about RinascitaScott wipes away the past 30-40 years of antimafia.

6/ I should do a whole other thread about the way in which the narrative of #Limbadi, the police where the Mancuso clan are from. The persons chosen are the usual victims, whose narrative however is not challenged (and yet it can be unfortunately).

7/ Limbadi IS NOT riddled with the #Ndrangheta. Limbadi, which incidentally is my father's birthplace, has been victimised by a powerful and parvenu mafia clan like the Mancuso. Perhaps visiting the communities and not just listening to one bell of dubious reputation would help,

8/ Same for the idea that the "the mafia's tentacles are so long, its infiltration of Italian society so deep". There is a lot about criminological thought I can bring here. Surely, the agency of the mafia is not the key issue here and saying otherwise is misleading.

9/ Finally, Nicola Gratteri is a great magistrate, but crime is not deterministic. To say that the only reason he was not a boss is because he was born into a family of honest people is partially true, he knows that, and this should be said by the article. It's not deterministic.

10/ Last, we should stop with this idea that mafias are viruses into otherwise healthy places; a better, much better view would be to understand what exactly is preventing society who wants to resist, to win and actually resist. Listen to other voices, and read more, much more.

Place* (not police!)

And last but not least, there is something quite peculiar about the obsession of foreign media (some foreign media) with Rinascita Scott - I wrote about it, in Italian icalabresi.it/rubriche/rinas…