Italian police to create 'Satan Squad'

[Stofsk]

I lived down the road from Manhattan Beach when the McMartin Pre-School case broke, I knew it was nothing but rich twats in that town resenting Okie white trash long before the eventual outcome, sadly it destroyed a whole fuck of a lot of lives due to it's influence.

I saw the telemovie about the McMartin case, it had James Woods in it.

Man, that was fucked up. Though I'm sure the truth is stranger than fiction.

[Patrick Degan]

The first command-level officers
of the new Italian Satan Flying Squad

[Chiaroscuro]

Haha--somehow I imagine the actual anti-Satanist squad has more heinous punishment in mind than sitting in the comfy chair.

[mr friendly guy]

Incidentally, that's also the flaw in mr friendly guy's analogy to paedophile priests: Those were perverted criminals who happened to be priests, and while the RCC tried to sweep the affair under the carpet, they never actively told anyone to go and rape children.

These specific sects, however, do exactly that. (Well, not *exactly* since murder is a different crime than CSA, but you get what I mean.)

The fact one idealogy is more abhorrent than another is irrelevant to my point. People aren't charged for holding an idealogy (usually anyway). They are charged for their actions irregardless of whether it was idealogically driven. The exception I can think of the top of my head is race hate law which doesn't apply to this case since the Satanists aren't targeting a specific group.

I asked why does one need to create this new squad to tackle new religions and not just Satanists (as per the article saying).

For one thing I highly doubt ALL new religions will have similar characteristics to these Satanists. They may very well just have perverted members and to I wonder why you need a specific squad to target them. If the regular police (as opposed to a new squad) can target "old religions" why can't they target new religions?

I can accept the argument that specific cults may have different MO's eg use of symbolism, hence requiring police to know about them. However what I don't get is why this squad which targets religion, only does so with new ones (besides the obvious, this is Italy which has a pro Catholic bias).

[Rye]

But why do they have to go after the entire sect of Satanists? Why don't they just prosecute the murderers? I mean, obviously murder is bad, but if you follow Satan in your own quiet way without hurting anyone I don't see the harm.

For the same reson Germany outlawed the entire Nazi party, rather than prosecute only those who personally gassed any jews: The crimes are not merely actions of people who happened to be members of these specific sects/the Nazi party, they are an integral part of the sect's/party's belief/doctrine.

Chances are, anyone that identifies as a satanist will actually be the LaVeyan type, and while they almost certainly have a dislike of religion, it won't be worse than the average atheist on here. Everyone else will just be targeted because of appearence, like "OMG she's wearing a pentagram!" and it'll be pretty lame.

These specific sects, however, do exactly that. (Well, not *exactly* since murder is a different crime than CSA, but you get what I mean.)

If they exist, that is. When such groups do exist, they're usually only stopped after they commit their crimes, a "satanism squad" would only "work" (rather, be seen to be working) if they act like totally intolerant arseholes that will likely be dicks to anyone that rebels against religious authoritarianism by listening to the "wrong bands" or wears pentagrams or inverted crosses. I'm betting they'll fuck up some kid's life because he's a goth, disses religion and has an ornamental sword or dagger or something; I mean fuck, that could be me! Mediterranean cops tend to be corrupt to all hell anyway, so when they play on the superstitions of italians and are under pressure to find a scapegoat... I don't like this at all.

[Stark]

I'm with Supes. The US 'satanism scare' was a complete fiction, fabricated by christians. I even have a copy of one of the 80s 'zomg teh satanz will steal ur bebbes' books. It was all baseless, like the 'D&D turns your kid into Harry Potter' bullshit: not a shred of actual evidence was ever presented.

Then again, these people don't sound like CoS satanists, just the regular emo 'haha satan edgy' kind of morons. Any reason to believe they're actually members of an organised religion, and not just criminals in death metal t-shirts?

[AMX]

The fact one idealogy is more abhorrent than another is irrelevant to my point.

Actually, it is.
The "less abhorrent" ones are simply not worth combatting, it'd be a waste of resources for very little gain.
The "more abhorrent" ones have to be taken out because they are just plain dangerous.

I asked why does one need to create this new squad to tackle new religions and not just Satanists (as per the article saying).

You did?
...
Indeed (well, almost). I must've mixed your post with Chiaroscuro's in my mind.

Anyway, that question beats me. I can see why they'd want to go after violent sects, but not "new religions" in general.


@Rye: Well, apparently there was one of them. Whether there's actually enough of a problem to warrant the "Satan Squad" is beyond my knowledge; I can only tell that the Italian police think there is, and knowing that stuff is part of their job.
Of course, given their less than stellar track record, it's perfectly possible that they're wrong.

[Covenant]

That is so awesome. I hope it includes The Bishop!

Man, I can't wait for this to make it's way to a TV series near me.

[Rye]

@Rye: Well, apparently there was one of them. Whether there's actually enough of a problem to warrant the "Satan Squad" is beyond my knowledge; I can only tell that the Italian police think there is, and knowing that stuff is part of their job.
Of course, given their less than stellar track record, it's perfectly possible that they're wrong.

You have to understand that italy has an extremely tabloidesque mindset, it's like it's part of their national identity. This is a case of blowing shit out of all proportion, similar to a lot of the responses to columbine, like "trench coat bans" or similar nonsense. I mean, italian driving is awful and kills hundreds annually, but they think 3 murders by the same people who are now locked up means there's a secret cult behind every curtain and they need a new dedicated police force to root them out by shutting concerts down and generally bug people that don't conform to what they want.

[Darth Wong]

To this day, Americans (especially right-wing Americans) use Satanism as a bogeyman. You still run into people who, when promoting religious expression in government institutions, would insist upon an exception for Satanism.