1980
November 29, Bari
Giuseppe Filippo, 50 years old, Police Sergeant
On November 28, 1980, while returning home in uniform at the end of his shift, in the entrance hall of the building where he lived with his family, Filippo was confronted by masked individuals who attempted to steal his service pistol. The policeman, in an attempt to defend his weapon, reacted against the criminals, engaging in a struggle. The terrorists then fired two shots, took his weapon, and fled in a stolen car. The policeman, promptly rescued, died shortly after at the Bari Policlinic.
At the end of the investigative activities, the Public Prosecutor’s Office at the Bari Court, agreeing with what was established by the Anti-terrorism and Digos, issued on January 19, 1982 an arrest warrant against 43 people, considered responsible for the formation and participation in an armed group called “Prima Linea,” as well as for multiple aggravated murder and robbery for some of them. For the murder, three militants of “Prima Linea” were finally convicted.
“To remember today the murder of Sergeant Giuseppe Filippo means to recall a dark season of our country in which ideological violence had taken over, overwhelming the lives of honest people, engaged in their work honestly, just as it happened exactly 40 years ago in Bari. That season of fear and violence taught us that we must never let our guard down against old and new fanaticisms,” Decaro explained. “Through the memory and sacrifice of Giuseppe Filippo, today we want to remember all the women and men of the law enforcement who work with great professionalism and sense of duty in the most diverse situations, from fighting new terrorism to combating the mafia, from managing public order to fighting against the spread of the epidemic, which has shaken the entire planet. I don’t like to call them heroes, because heroes are required to have superpowers: they are women and men who, like us, live with daily fear and yet continue to work for our safety.”