"I don't feel guilty for having those kids close down the stall. If you're an outlaw, you're an outlaw." Gian Marco Saolini makes it clear, including a photo of him talking to local police officers in front of the stall that was at the center of the controversy.
Given the conditions (of many) it is necessary to say it as soon as possible (and perhaps it would have been better to say it in the first line, but those who are indignant don't even get to that): none of it is true.
Or rather, the news about the 13- and 14-year-old children from Pradamano, in the province of Udine, who received a fine is true. They had set up a stall to raise money to buy a Ciao. An old-fashioned scene with a controversial ending. And, naturally, the comments were shared on social media.
It's not true, however, that it was Gian Marco Saolini who called the police. He's also known for trolling on social media: he pounces on every topic that's gone viral, inventing a character supposedly at the center of the story. And he launches a provocation. The problem: there are thousands of users who don't realize it's a "troll," precisely. Even though it's obvious, even though it would take just a second to stop and think. Instead, here are thousands and thousands of indignant comments. From all over Italy (including Sardinia, where pages with the same philosophy are rampant: blatantly and openly trolling, but nothing; the indignation driven by the incomprehension of a simple text spreads more than the pages).
For his latest stunt, Saolini writes: "I don't feel guilty for having those kids close down . If you're an outlaw, you're an outlaw. Child, adult, old, white, red, yellow, black, I don't see age or color. For me, if you're an outlaw, you should end up in jail, and I'll throw away the key too. I have a bar here in Udine and I pay a lot of taxes; if I pay them, everyone pays them." A hodgepodge of and more national-socialist-populist indignation. But the opposite. The result? Over 19,000 comments. There are those (fortunately quite a few) who enter simply to comment ironically. An example? "How frustrated you must be, goodness me.... Of course, because kids can open a shop and pay taxes... Some had lots of them, but even though they were new, they didn't play with them anymore, and some had just a few and could buy them for 1,000 lire. I'd be ashamed of myself." And that would be the case.
