Italian Police on Trial

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Luckyorwhat

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This is not derogatory of police or law enforcement in general, it is simply to remind people that power can and ultimately Will be abused. Everywhere, by anyone. This article is for all those who claim civilians don't need weapons, because the police bear arms and the police do nothing but look out for us civilians. So I must repeat one more time (sorry to be pedantic to those who understand this truth intimately):

THE POLICE ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE TO YOU. THEIR JOB IS NOT TO SERVE AND PROTECT. THEY EXIST TO EXECUTE LEGISLATIVE ORDERS - THEY WORK FOR THE GOVERNMENT.

Once again, sorry to shout* like that, but I just think more people should understand the relation police have in society. They are good people, yes, but also bad, and time and again the bad influences can cause great damage in the shortest lapse of good judgement.



"Italian police on trial over G8 summit beatings

John Hooper in Genoa
Saturday June 26, 2004
The Guardian

A group of 29 Italian police officers, including the country's anti-terror chief, go on trial in Genoa today in connection with a brutal attack on protesters at the 2001 G8 summit and an alleged plot to justify the violence using fabricated evidence.
About 200 police, revenue guards, prison officers and paramilitary carabinieri stor-med the makeshift head-quarters of the umbrella protest group, the Genoa Social Forum, on the night of July 21 and began hitting people - many of them in sleeping bags - with batons, breaking ribs, skulls and limbs .

The raid followed three days of violent clashes in Genoa between police and demonstrators in which one protester was shot dead by a carabinieri conscript and hundreds of officers were injured.

Police at first claimed they had been attacked from the Genoa Social Forum's headquarters in the Diaz school, and produced two Molotov cocktails as evidence. But prosecutors say the fire bombs were planted there by, among others, the deputy police commissioner of Rome.

Enrica Bartesaghi, the mother of one of those injured in the raid and head of a committee representing the victims, told a press conference in Genoa yesterday that of the 96 people inside the Diaz school, 62 had to be taken to hospital - three in a coma.

Richard Moth, a London social worker, yesterday recalled "screaming with the pain" as nurses in the hospital to which he was taken held him down while a doctor stitched his wounds without anaesthetic.

He said he was then moved to a detention camp, where he and others were further maltreated for several days.

Another 47 members of the security forces face trial in connection with abuses at the camp. Mr Moth is one of five Britons suing the police defendants in the Diaz school trial.

At yesterday's press conference, Richard Parry, a solicitor for two of the plaintiffs, criticised the British government's attitude.

"The victims have had no support from the government," he said.

None of the officers who carried out the beatings is to stand trial. All were masked at the time and have not been identified.

Green party and leftwing MPs have tabled a bill in the Italian parliament designed to require police to wear numbers while engaged in public order operations.

The unit commanders in-volved in the Diaz raid face charges of failing to prevent the violence, and a number of more senior officers, including the head of the anti-terror police, Francesco Gratteri, are accused of defamation or of making false allegations in the alleged plot to incriminate the victims.

The preliminary hearing - in which all the defendants are expected to deny the charges - has brought many of the back to Genoa for the first time since 2001.

Aitor Balbas, 33, a geologist from Pamplona, was one of a group of 11 Spaniards set upon in the Diaz school. Eight decided against returning, and two were still suffering from psychological problems, he said.

Lena Zuhlke, 27, a tree surgeon from Hamburg, was left with a broken leg and head injuries, a broken finger, two broken ribs and a punctured lung. Although her medical treatment has now finished, she still has breathing problems."
 
I wouldn't say it was a situation involving abuse of power. i was in italy during the G8 summit in Genoa, and the video footage I caught on Sky, BBC, Rai, and the rest made it look like the LA riots. The protestors were attacking the Carabinieri with all sorts of weapons, from molotov cocktails, sticks, broken bottles, and even fire extinguishers. (there was a clip of a masked individual who was using one. He was promptly shot in the head) Not to flame, but I think if you were one of the Carabinieri on the ground that day, you wouldn't have done a whole lot different. I know I wouldn't have.
 
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