Carabinieri
The Carabinieri is the shortened (and common) name for the Arma dei Carabinieri, an Italian military corps of the gendarmerie type with police functions, which also serves as the Italian military police.
"Carabinieri" are not only military police. Historically, a Carabiniere was a cavalry or soldier armed with a carbine. Their motto is Nei Secoli Fedele (Faithful throughout the Centuries). Their mission was to control the crime and to serve the community through respect for the Law.
History
The corps was created by King Victor Emmanuel I of Sardinia, with the aim of providing Piedmont with a police corps similar to the French Gendarmerie. Previously, police duties were managed by the Dragoni di Sardegna corps, created in 1726 and composed of volunteers.
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After French soldiers had occupied Turin at the end of the 18th century and later abandoned it to the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia, the corps of Carabinieri Reali was instituted under the Regie Patenti (Royal Patent) of July 13, 1814.
Both a military and a police corps, the Carabinieri have fought in every conflict in which Italy has been involved, suffering heavy losses and being awarded many decorations for gallantry.
The Carabinieri are particularly proud of the memory of Brigadier Salvo D'Acquisto, who was executed by the Nazis in Palidoro, near Rome, in World War II, having exchanged his life for the lives of innocent citizens due to be executed in retaliation for the murder of a German soldier. Brigadier D'Acquisto falsely claimed responsibility and was shot for the offense.
The history of the Carabinieri is replete with other such actions and the corps is nicknamed La Benemerita (the Meritorious).
The Carabinieri recently became an armed force (alongside the Army, Navy and Air Force), thus ending their long standing as the first corps (Arma) of the Army (Esercito). It is likely that Carabinieri will continue to be referred to as the Arma by antonomasia, unrivalled in popular affection and national pride.
In recent years Carabinieri units have been dispatched all over the world in peacekeeping missions, including in Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq. In 2004 twelve Carabinieri were killed in a suicide bomb attack on their base in Nasiriyah, near Basra, in southern Iraq, in the largest Italian military loss of life in a single action since the Second World War.
At the Sea Islands Conference of the G8 in 2004, the Carabinieri was given the mandate to establish a Center of Excellence for Stability Police Units (CoESPU) to spearhead the development of training and doctrinal standards for civilian police units attached to international peacekeeping missions.
Organisation
Chain of command
The corps is headed by the Comando, consisting of the Comandante Generale (a General), the Vice-Comandante Generale (a Lieutenant General) and the Headquarters Staff, all located in Rome.
Territorial organisation
The Carabinieri are organised on a territorial basis. There are five Zones (commanded by Lieutenant Generals), 20 Regions (commanded by a Major General or Brigadier Generals) and 104 Provinces (commanded by a Colonel or Lieutenant Colonels). At a local level, in medium city there are Companies, commanded by a "Capitano" (Captain), an in small towns there are Stations, commanded by a "Maresciallo" (Italian, which translates as "Marshal", but is more similar in rank to a Warrant Officer).
Special organisations
Specialised units also exist, such as the Nucleo Tutela Patrimonio Artistico (specialising in the protection of artwork and in the recovery of stolen paintings) and the Mobile Command, consisting of twelve Mobile Regiments.
The R.O.S. [Raggruppamento Operativo Speciale] is an elite unit exclusively devoted to fighting organized crime (Mafia and others) and terrorist organizations.
The special operations unit is named Gruppo di Intervento Speciale (GIS) and is composed exclusively by former members of the elite forces. The GIS has the same training as the NOCS of the Polizia di Stato, but has wider duties as the Carabinieri are also responsible for military policing (so only the GIS is involved when military installations are under threat) and may be sent abroad on peacekeeping or enforcement duties.
The Corazzieri (Cuirassiers) are an elite corps and are the honour guard of the President of the Italian Republic. They are distinguished by their uniforms and height (the minimum height for admission is 190cm, or 6 feet 3 inches).
The Carabinieri in Italian culture
Carabinieri made an appearance in Carlo Collodi's 1882 Pinocchio, when two officers arrest Pinocchio for a crime he has not committed.
While the Carabinieri have been widely considered one of the most trusted and competent institutions by the Italian population, they are also the traditional butt of many jokes implying that they were stereotypically incompetent and unable to think beyond blind obedience [1].
Many films and tv series have featured the Carabinieri, including as protagonists. Racconti del Maresciallo, La Tenda Nera, Il Maresciallo Rocca and Carabinieri are some of the titles that have been produced, mainly by the RAI fiction division, in the last few years.
In January 2005, the private television network Canale 5 introduced a Carabinieri-related drama series called R.I.S. based on the Ra.C.I.S. (Raggruppamento Carabinieri Investigazioni Scientifiche; Carabinieri Scientific Investigation Group) and modelled on the American CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.
Criticism
The Carabinieri have an arguably shady reputation that mainly stems from their alleged involvement in atrocities, as part of the Italian African Police, in occupied Ethiopia in the late 1930s and early 1940s,[1] during the fascist regime of Benito Mussolini the corps of Carabinieri cooperate with the regime because that was order of the king. [2] It must however be underlined that, when King Victor Emmanuel III decided the arrest of Mussolini on 25 July 1943, the Carabinieri were entrusted with this task. It is also noteworthy that, when Mussolini was freed by the Germans in September 1943 (following Italy's armistice with the Allies) and took the lead of the Repubblica Sociale Italiana in October 1943, he decided to disband the Carabinieri and establish in their place a new police force, the Repubblican National Guard (Guardia Nazionale Repubblicana – GNR). Although the GNR was largely constituted of former Carabinieri, this decision was probably due to the fact that the Carabinieri were traditionally considered as being closer to the monarchy than to the fascist regime and therefore not fully reliable after the King had switched over to the Allies' side.
See also