Firenze Begins Crackdown on "Lavavetri"

NEW YORK--(Italy Watch)--In the pastoral provincia of Firenze, the lavavetri--window washers--are afraid. In the past few days Firenze began a crackdown, arresting 15 people on Aug. 28th, after the local government issued a directive the day prior.

Councillor of Security, Graziano Cioni, has come under fire, but affirms that the directive is not against "the poor", but rather an answer to "the arrogance and aggression that many window washers direct towards automobile drivers who do not pay them as much as they would like."

Prominent Italian intellectual Alberto Asor Rosa (not even a fiorentino, but a romano) criticized Cioni calling the new law a cialtronata--something that is good-for-nothing. Cioni hit back contending that Rosa doesn't even live among "the people" anymore. Cioni continued, stressing, "certain intellectuals don't even live in the cities anymore with the people. I, however, I live among the people and the citizens side with me."

The law remains in vigor, arrests continue to be made, with prison sentences lasting up to 3 months.