There is outrage against the decision of the Mayor of Naples, Gaetano Manfredi, to honor Geolier, according to Maria Luisa Iavarone, the mother of Arturo Puoti, the boy who was stabbed by a gang in Naples at just 17 years old in December 2017.
"Mayor Manfredi rewards the untouchables," Iavarone writes in a long Facebook post. "Now it seems to me that we are really starting to exaggerate..... after the overwhelming success in Sanremo, even Mayor Manfredi thinks he should take the field to consecrate to eternal glory the Neapolitan rapper who will be honored by him this afternoon..."
"Dear Mayor, do you want to make this sensational gesture?" she continues. "But at least ask Geolier to renounce his positions on weapons, drugs, sex, sexism, and support for organized crime. Just a few years ago, Geolier signed a video clip of his piece 'narcos' where he is seen wielding a golden machine gun, flaunting weapons power and violence... In a city like Naples where the circulation of weapons is rampant, our mayor rewards these messengers...?"
"Obviously our mayor must have taken literally the lyrics of the song 'I have a criminal brother, I'm untouchable in Secondigliano'", Iavarone concluded. "For heaven's sake, we are happy if a Neapolitan talent rises on the national scene, but at least the artist explicitly distances himself from certain stereotypes and messages that celebrate criminogenic models!"