A curfew for minors: this is the measure launched by the mayor of Casal di Principe (Caserta), Ottaviano Corvino. The order “invites” the boys under the age of 14 to exit only if accompanied by a responsible adult. Not a formal prohibition – legally more difficult to impose – but a de facto obligation, which establishes a sort of evening curfew.

The initiative was born after some episodes of harassment, made and suffered by very young people. The first citizen presented it as an act of protection against the boys themselves. To supervise, we read in the ordinance, they will be local police and other law enforcement officers. And it is precisely here that the first question arises: truly urban policemen, police and carabinieri have to use their energies to control those who leave the house after 10 pm, instead of supervising the same kids to prevent them from being abused?

Stop the nightlife of kids

The order of the Mayor Corvino resembles a preventive rendering of the state: a shortcut that avoids the real problem, that is, the control of the territory in the most delicate hours and the management of youth discomfort in difficult areas of the country. Nobody doubts the complexity of administering Casal di Principe, a reality where problems have dragged themselves for decades and on which books, treated and shot films have been written. But precisely from those works a point emerged: the state, which should be the “good”, was called to take care of the weakest, not to lock them at home.

In the past he tried to do so by creating opportunities for young people: avoiding school abandonment, favoring entry into work, supporting those who work on the front line on social discomfort. We think of the role of figures such as Don Patriciello in Caivano or the many social-health workers who fight to offer a different future to those born on the margins. We are sure that the ordinance of the Mayor Corvino was issued to the right good, and that the reality he administers knows better than anyone else. But to read it remains a sense of bitterness. Because it recalls more the white flag of a state that surrenders than not an act of protection.

Caivano’s example

We saw it in Caivano, when – after serious episodes of news – the state presented itself in all its joints, from the premier to the Region President, to promise interventions. Someone spoke of a catwalk, but from there a path was born that led, only a few weeks ago, to the opening of a center for the victims of violence.

Better a state that tries to do, even with limits and imperfections, that a state that abdicates. Because preventing kids from going out does not mean protecting them. It means surrendering. And this should never be the task of the institutions.