Editor’s Note: These Slovak pilgrims were poorly prepared to be detained by the Italian State Police, which polices the square of Saint Peter, because in Italian law it is A FELONY for the police to take your cameras or cellphones and erase their contents without a court order. This also happened to me in Spain, where the state police erased my photos of themselves, while leaving the video of me being assaulted by private security in the Cathedral. — I am familiar with the police harassment which takes place near and inside Saint Peter’s square, as I have reported it on several occasions. — From my first day in Rome in 2019, when my Pope Benedict XVI banner was stolen by the State Police at the piazza of Saint John Lateran’s in the center of Rome, I know that these crimes and violation of civil liberties are gleefully perpetrated by the Italian State Police at the specific request and encouragement of Msgr. Parra, the under-secretary of State at the Vatican; because when I asked the Police on whose authority they acted, they named him.
