Omertà

Omertà /oʊˈmɛərtə/ (Italian pronunciation: [omerˈta])[1] is a code of honor that places importance on silence, non-cooperation with
authorities, and non-interference in the illegal actions of others. It originated and remains common in Southern Italy, where banditry
or brigandage and Mafia-type criminal organizations (like the Camorra, Cosa Nostra, 'Ndrangheta and Sacra Corona Unita) are
strong. It is also deeply rooted in rural Crete (Greece),[2] and Corsica, both of which share a common or similar historic culture with
Southern Italy.

It also exists, to a lesser extent, in certainItalian-American neighborhoodswhere the Italian-American Mafiahas influence, as well as
in Italian ethnic enclaves in countries such as Germany, Canada, and Australia, where Italian organized crime exists. Retaliation
against informers is common in criminal circles, where informers are known as "rats" or "snitches".

Contents
Code
History
In popular culture
See also
Notes
References

Code
The basic principle ofomertà is that it is not "manly" to seek the aid from legally constituted authorities to settle personal grievances.
The suspicion of being a cascittuni (an informant) constituted the blackest mark against manhood, according to Cutrera. An
individual who has been wronged is obligated to look out for his own interests by avenging that wrong himself, or finding a patron—
but not the State—to do the job.[3]

Omertà implies "...the categorical prohibition of cooperation with state authorities or reliance on its services, even when one has been
victim of a crime."[4] A person should absolutely avoid interfering in the business of others and should not inform the authorities of a
crime under any circumstances (though if justified he may personally avenge a physical attack on himself or on his family by
vendetta, literally a taking of revenge, a feud). Even if somebody is convicted of a crime he has not committed, he is supposed to
serve the sentence without giving the police any information about the real criminal, even if that criminal has nothing to do with the
Mafia. Within Mafia culture, breakingomertà is punishable by death.[4]

Omertà is an extreme form of loyalty and solidarity in the face of authority. One of its absolute tenets is that it is deeply demeaning
and shameful to betray even one's deadliest enemy to the authorities. For this reason, many Mafia-related crimes go unsolved.
Observers of the Mafia debate whether omertà should best be understood as an expression of social consensus surrounding the Mafia
or whether it is instead a pragmatic response based primarily on fear
, as implied by a popular Sicilian proverb Cu è surdu, orbu e taci,
campa cent'anni 'mpaci("He who is deaf, blind, and silent will live a hundred years in peace").

It has also been described that: "Whoever appeals to the law against his fellow man is either a fool or a coward. Whoever cannot take
care of himself without police protection is both. It is as cowardly to betray an offender to justice, even though his offences be against
yourself, as it is not to avenge an injury by violence. It is dastardly and contemptible in a wounded man to betray the name of his
[5]
assailant, because if he recovers, he must naturally expect to take vengeance himself."
History
The OED traces the word to the Spanish word hombredad, meaning manliness, modified after the Sicilian word omu for man.
According to a different theory, the word comes from Latin humilitas (humility), which became umirtà and then finally omertà in
some southern Italian dialects.[6] Sicilians adopted the code long before the emergence of Cosa Nostra, and it may have been heavily
influenced by centuries of state oppression and foreign colonization. It has been observed at least as far back as the 16th century as a
way of opposing Spanish rule.[7]

Omertà is a code of silence, according to one of the first Mafia researchers Antonio Cutrera, a former officer of public security, that
seals lips of men even in their own defense and even when the accused is innocent of charged crimes. Cutrera quoted a native saying
give you".[3]
which was first uttered (so goes the legend) by a wounded man to his assailant: "If I live, I'll kill you. If I die, I for

The Italian-American mafioso Joe Valachi famously broke the omertà code when, in 1963, he publicly spoke out about the existence
of the Mafia and testified before theUnited States Congress, becoming the first in the modern history of the American Mafia to break
his blood oath.[8][9] In Sicily, the phenomenon of pentito (Italian he who has repented) broke omertà.

Among the most famous Mafia pentiti is Tommaso Buscetta, the first important State witness who helped prosecutor Giovanni
Falcone to understand the inner workings of Cosa Nostra and described the Sicilian Mafia Commission or Cupola, the leadership of
the Sicilian Mafia. A predecessor, Leonardo Vitale, who gave himself up to the police in 1973, was judged mentally ill, so his
testimony led only to the conviction of himself and his uncle.

In popular culture
Mario Puzo wrote novels based on the principles of Omertà and the Cosa Nostra. His best known works in that vein are the trilogy
The Godfather, The Sicilian, and Omertà. The final book of the series, Omertà, was finished before his death but published
posthumously in 2000 from his manuscript.[10]

See also
Besa (Albanian culture)
Blue code of silence
Code of silence
Lip sewing
Mesirah
Malavita
Narcoculture in Mexico
Right to silence
Stop Snitchin'
What happens on tour, stays on tour

Notes
1. The grave accent in Italian, Sicilian and Corsican indicates that the final⟨a⟩ is stressed. In English, it is often spelled
omerta, without an accent, and pronounced with misplaced stress as [o ʊˈmɛrtə] rather than [omerˈta].
2. Michael, Herzfeld (2004).The Body Impolitic: Artisans and Artifice in the Global Hierarchy of alue
V (https://books.go
ogle.com/books?id=rE9qHQwTCUoC). Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press.ISBN 0-226-32913-5.
3. (in Italian) Antonio Cutrera, La mafia e i mafiosi, Reber, Palermo: 1900, p. 27 (reprinted by Arnaldo Forni Editore,
Sala Bolognese 1984,ISBN 88-271-2487-X), quoted in Nelli, The Business of Crime, p. 13-14
4. Paoli, Mafia Brotherhoods, p. 109
5. Porello, The Rise and Fall of the Cleveland Mafia, p. 23; (http://www.americanmafia.com/What_Is_The_Mafia.html)
6. However, the theory that omertà originates from umiltà was already discarded by the first Antimafia Commission of
the Italian parliament in the 1970s, which traces the origin toomu. See: (in Italian) Relazione conclusiva,
 Commissione parlamentare d’inchiesta sul fenomeno della mafia in Sicilia, Rome 1976, p. 106
7. http://www.knowital.com/history/sicily/sicily-history.html
8. Killers in Prison (http://jcgi.pathfinder.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,875227,00.html), Time, October 4, 1963
9. "The Smell of It" (http://jcgi.pathfinder.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,873080,00.html), Time, October 11, 1963
10. "Omerta" (http://www.worldcat.org/search?qt=wikipedia&q=isbn%3A0375502548). WorldCat. Retrieved 28 February
2012.

References
Blok, Anton (1988). The Mafia of a Sicilian Village, 1860-1960. A study of violent peasant entrepreneurs, Long Grove
(Illinois): Waveland Press ISBN 0-88133-325-5 (Originally published in 1974)
Nelli, Humbert S. (1981).The Business of Crime. Italians and Syndicate Crime in the United States
, Chicago: The
University of Chicago PressISBN 0-226-57132-7 (Originally published in 1976)
Paoli, Letizia (2003). Mafia Brotherhoods: Organized Crime, Italian Style
, Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press
ISBN 0-19-515724-9
Porrello, Rick (1995). The Rise and Fall of the Cleveland Mafia. Corn Sugar and Blood
, New York: Barricade books
ISBN 1-56980-058-8
Servadio, Gaia (1976),Mafioso. A history of the Mafia from its origins to the present day
, London: Secker & Warburg
ISBN 0-436-44700-2

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