Vatican 'is in grip of mini crime wave'

[emad]

The Independent
By our foreign staff
09 January 2005


Long famed as a holy city, the Vatican is also one of the world's most welcoming destinations for petty criminals, it was reported yesterday.

With 18 million visitors a year and a resident population of only 500, the headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church already has one of the highest per capita crime rates on the planet. Worse still, nine out of 10 crimes committed inside the tiny city state in Rome go unpunished.

Most of the incidents - petty thefts, pick-pocketing and vandalism - take place among tourists in St Peter's Basilica, St Peter's Square and the Vatican Museums. But the culprits fade back into the constant crowds of thousands of pilgrims and tourists.

Yesterday a Vatican official complained his city is in the grip of a mini crimewave - which also includes incidences of fraud, embezzlement and insulting the police.

http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/story.jsp?story=599090

[gandalf]

1. I'm relieved to hear

that only minor crimes are committed in the holy city.

[emad]

2. Hi Gandalf, a Happy New Year to you and yours....

from a wet and windy London where crimes against minors abound....

[American Tragedy]

3. Really?

You know, I read about British and European politicians saying that crime is out of control, but I get the sense that they operate on a very different scale than their American counterparts.

I was able to safely walk around all of Berlin by myself, even at night, which is more than I can say for most cities over here.

[emad]

6. London has tight security but the usual spate of street crime is

getting out of hand.

I envy you your nocturnal perambulations; here, I don't venture out alone after dark without the neighbour's Rottweiler on a very felxile leash.

[gandalf]

4. Hi emad,

a happy new year to you as well!

Probably major political crimes are committed here also, and the Holger Pfahls story is a reminder of the probably corrupt Kohl regime. But this is not discussed very often (or I haven't found the right German forum yet).

[emad]

5. I'm following a Major crime thread at the moment myself, as in

John Major and his machinations at the Carlyle Group.

Waiting for a UK story to break linking him, Carlyle, those four fake Pinochet passports recently in the news, the Riggs Bank and the trail leading to the Equatorial Guinea coup plot, for which Mark Thatcher is in the dock...

Feels like a great new year ahead!

[Cuban_Liberal]

7. "...Most of the incidents - petty thefts, pick-pocketing and vandalism....

Some 'mini crime wave'...

:eyes: