From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Carabinieri are the gendarmerie and military police of Italy. Carabinieri is Italian for Carabiniers, but the Italian word is used as the common name for this force in English. The full official title of the force is Arma dei Carabinieri.

Historically, a Carabiniere was a cavalryman or soldier armed with a carbine. Their motto is Nei Secoli Fedele (Faithful throughout the Centuries). Their mission was to control the crime and to serve the community through respect for the Law.

Contents 1 History 2 Organisation 2.1 Chain of command 2.2 Territorial organisation 2.3 Special organisations 3 The Carabinieri in Italian culture 4 Criticism 5 See also 6 External links 7 References

The corps was created by King Victor Emmanuel I of Sardinia, with the aim of providing Piedmont with a police corps similar to the French Gendarmerie. Previously, police duties were managed by the Dragoni di Sardegna corps, created in 1726 and composed of volunteers.

After French soldiers had occupied Turin at the end of the 18th century and later abandoned it to the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia, the corps of Carabinieri Reali was instituted under the Regie Patenti (Royal Patent) of July 13, 1814.

Both a military and a police corps, the Carabinieri have fought in every conflict in which Italy has been involved, suffering heavy losses and being awarded many decorations for gallantry.

The Carabinieri are particularly proud of the memory of Brigadier Salvo D'Acquisto, who was executed by the Nazis in Palidoro, near Rome, in World War II, having exchanged his life for the lives of innocent citizens due to be executed in retaliation for the murder of a German soldier. Brigadier D'Acquisto falsely claimed responsibility and was shot for the offence.

The history of the Carabinieri is replete with other such actions and the corps is nicknamed La Benemerita (the Meritorious).

The Carabinieri recently became an armed force (alongside the Army, Navy and Air Force), thus ending their long standing as the first corps (Arma) of the Army (Esercito). It is likely that Carabinieri will continue to be referred to as the Arma by antonomasia, unrivalled in popular affection and national pride.

In recent years Carabinieri units have been dispatched all over the world in peacekeeping missions, including in Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq. In 2004 twelve Carabinieri were killed in a suicide bomb attack on their base in Nasiriyah, near Basra, in southern Iraq, in the largest Italian military loss of life in a single action since the Second World War.

At the Sea Islands Conference of the G8 in 2004, the Carabinieri was given the mandate to establish a Center of Excellence for Stability Police Units (CoESPU) to spearhead the development of training and doctrinal standards for civilian police units attached to international peacekeeping missions.

The corps is headed by the Comando, consisting of the Comandante Generale (a General), the Vice-Comandante Generale (a Lieutenant General) and the Headquarters Staff, all located in Rome.

The Carabinieri are organised on a territorial basis. There are five Zones (commanded by Lieutenant Generals), 20 Regions (commanded by a Major General or Brigadier Generals) and 104 Provinces (commanded by a Colonel or Lieutenant Colonels). At a local level, in medium city there are Companies, commanded by a "Capitano" (Captain), an in small towns there are Stations, commanded by a "Maresciallo" (Italian, which translates as "Marshal", but is more similar in rank to a Warrant Officer).

Specialised units also exist, such as the Tutela Patrimonio Culturale or TCP (charged with protecting Italy's cultural heritage)^[1], the Nucleo Tutela Patrimonio Artistico (specialising in the protection of artwork and in the recovery of stolen paintings) and the Mobile Command, consisting of twelve Mobile Regiments.

The ROS [Raggruppamento Operativo Speciale] is an elite unit exclusively devoted to fighting organized crime (Mafia and others) and terrorist organizations.

The special operations unit is named Gruppo di Intervento Speciale (GIS) and is composed exclusively by former members of the elite forces. The GIS has the same training as the NOCS of the Polizia di Stato, but has wider duties as the Carabinieri are also responsible for military policing (so only the GIS is involved when military installations are under threat) and may be sent abroad on peacekeeping or enforcement duties.

The Corazzieri (Cuirassiers) are an elite corps and are the honour guard of the President of the Italian Republic. They are distinguished by their uniforms and height (the minimum height for admission is 190cm, or 6 feet 3 inches).

Currently there are many Carabinieri groups around the world including Australia and Canada. The election for the President of the Melbourne Association has been held and tension has arisen over the newly elected President. The favourite to win, Mr. Frank Pavan, was unfortunantly not elected.

Carabinieri made an appearance in Carlo Collodi's 1882 Pinocchio, when two officers arrest Pinocchio for a crime he has not committed.

While the Carabinieri have been widely considered one of the most trusted and competent institutions by the Italian population, they are also the traditional butt of many jokes implying that they were stereotypically incompetent and unable to think beyond blind obedience [7].

Many films and tv series have featured the Carabinieri, including as protagonists. Racconti del Maresciallo, La Tenda Nera, Il Maresciallo Rocca and Carabinieri are some of the titles that have been produced, mainly by the RAI fiction division, in the last few years.

In January 2005, the private television network Canale 5 introduced a Carabinieri-related drama series called R.I.S. based on the Ra.C.I.S. (Raggruppamento Carabinieri Investigazioni Scientifiche; Carabinieri Scientific Investigation Group) and modelled on the American CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.

The Carabinieri have an arguably shady reputation that mainly stems from their alleged involvement in atrocities, as part of the Italian African Police, in occupied Ethiopia in the late 1930s and early 1940s,^[2] during the fascist regime of Benito Mussolini the corps of Carabinieri cooperated with the regime because that was order of the king. ^[3] However, when King Victor Emmanuel III ordered the arrest of Mussolini on 25 July 1943, the Carabinieri were entrusted with this task. It is also noteworthy that, when Mussolini was freed by the Germans in September 1943 (following Italy's armistice with the Allies) and took the lead of the Repubblica Sociale Italiana in October 1943, he decided to disband the Carabinieri and establish in their place a new police force, the Republican National Guard (Guardia Nazionale Repubblicana – GNR). Although the GNR was largely constituted of former Carabinieri, this decision was probably due to the fact that the Carabinieri were traditionally considered as being closer to the constitutional monarchy than to the fascist regime, and therefore not fully reliable after the King had switched over to the Allies' side.

Some senior carabiniers were implicated in the controversies surrounding Operation Gladio, including the violent "strategy of tension" and an embryonic plan for a coup d'etat. These allegations remain unproven.

• gendarmerie
• constabulary
• military police
• paramilitary
• Zaptie

• (Italian) Official Carabinieri website

Law enforcement agencies of Italy
Regular	Carabinieri | Polizia di Stato | Polizia Provinciale | Guardia di Finanza | Polizia Penitenziaria | Corpo Forestale dello Stato
Specialized	Corazzieri | Nucleo Operativo Centrale di Sicurezza | Gruppo di Intervento Speciale | Gruppo di Investigazione Criminalità Organizzata | Polizia Postale | Polizia Stradale | Polizia Ferroviaria

	Military of Italy
Esercito Italiano (Army)   Marina Militare (Navy)   Aeronautica Militare (Air Force)   Carabinieri (Military Police)

1. ^ Men's Vogue, Nov/Dec 2006, Vol. 2, No. 3, pg. 44.
2. ^ Ethiopian Atrocities: [1][2][3][4]
3. ^ [5][6]