The Battle of Genoa, 2001

[Antoninov]

The bloody battle of Genoa (The Guardian, 17/07/08, english)

Alors qu'un premier procès vient de se terminer, cet article revient sur les évènements… Ca fait froid dans le dos…

None of those who stayed on the ground floor escaped injury. As Zucca later put it in his prosecution report: "In the space of a few minutes, all the occupants on the ground floor had been reduced to complete helplessness, the groans of the wounded mingling with the sound of calls for an ambulance." In their fear, some victims lost control of their bowels. Then the officers of the law moved up the stairs. In the first-floor corridor they found a small group, including Gieser, still clutching his toothbrush: "Someone suggested lying down, to show there was no resistance. So I did. The police arrived and began beating us, one by one. I protected my head with my hands. I thought, 'I must survive.' People were shouting, 'Please stop.' I said the same thing … It made me think of a pork butchery. We were being treated like animals, like pigs."

(…)

Police officers found a fire extinguisher and squirted its foam into Martensen's wounds. His partner was dragged by her hair and tossed down the stairs head-first. Eventually, they dragged Zuhlke into the ground-floor hall, where they had gathered dozens of prisoners from all over the building in a mess of blood and excrement. They threw her on top of two other people.

(…)

Covell and dozens of other victims of the raid were taken to the San Martino hospital, where police officers walked up and down the corridors, slapping their clubs into the palms of their hands, ordering the injured not to move around or look out of the window, keeping handcuffs on many of them and then, often with injuries still untended, shipping them across the city to join scores of others, from the Diaz school and from the street demonstrations, detained at the detention centre in the city's Bolzaneto district.

(…)

The 222 people who were held at Bolzaneto were treated to a regime later described by public prosecutors as torture. On arrival, they were marked with felt-tip crosses on each cheek, and many were forced to walk between two parallel lines of officers who kicked and beat them. Most were herded into large cells, holding up to 30 people. Here, they were forced to stand for long periods, facing the wall with their hands up high and their legs spread. Those who failed to hold the position were shouted at, slapped and beaten. Mohammed Tabach has an artificial leg and, unable to hold the stress position, collapsed and was rewarded with two bursts of pepper spray in his face and, later, a particularly savage beating. Norman Blair later recalled standing like this and a guard asking him "Who is your government?" "The person before me had answered 'Polizei', so I said the same. I was afraid of being beaten."

(…)

Even the infirmary was dangerous. Richard Moth, covered in cuts and bruises after lying on top of his partner, was given stitches in his head and legs without anaesthetic - "an extremely painful and disturbing experience. I had to be held down." Prison medical staff were among those convicted of abuse on Monday.

(…)

The outside world was treated to some severely distorted accounts of all this. Lying in San Martino hospital the day after his beating, Covell came round to find his shoulder being shaken by a woman who, he understood, was from the British embassy. It was only when the man with her started taking photographs that he realised she was a reporter, from the Daily Mail. Its front page the next day ran an entirely false report describing him as having helped mastermind the riots. (Four long years later, the Mail eventually apologised and paid Covell damages for invasion of privacy.)

[Taranne]

Ca fait froid dans le dos…

La conclusion surtout, très Guardian dans sa propension à mélanger tout et n'importe quoi, et sortir les grands mots ("fascisme", rien que ça)

[vincponcet]

The bloody battle of Genoa (The Guardian, 17/07/08, english)

Alors qu'un premier procès vient de se terminer, cet article revient sur les évènements… Ca fait froid dans le dos…

J'aimerais savoir si les manifestants qui se sont fait tabassés étaient dans le cadre d'une manifestation déclarée ou dans le cadre du viol d'un périmètre de sécurité.

Non pas que je défende le G8 ou les périmètres de sécurité, mais si on entre dans une zone dite "interdite", il faut s'attendre à prendre des coups de bâton.

[Harald]

J'aimerais savoir si les manifestants qui se sont fait tabassés étaient dans le cadre d'une manifestation déclarée ou dans le cadre du viol d'un périmètre de sécurité.

Non pas que je défende le G8 ou les périmètres de sécurité, mais si on entre dans une zone dite "interdite", il faut s'attendre à prendre des coups de bâton.

30.000 manifestants, trois jours d'émeutes et de pillages. A mon sens cela justifie une réponse musclée. En revanche, ce qui s'est passé dans les casernes de la police est tout bonnement inacceptable.

[Hidalgo]

30.000 manifestants, trois jours d'émeutes et de pillages. A mon sens cela justifie une réponse musclée. En revanche, ce qui s'est passé dans les casernes de la police est tout bonnement inacceptable.

Bravo Harald. Des flics armés jusqu'aux dents qui explosent des machoîrs à coup de pieds j'appelle cela des animaux. Si j'avais été victime de cela, je me serais vengé de manière autant violente et arbitraire sur les policiers de la ville.

[Ash]

Un pacifiste, donc.

[Taranne]

Bravo Harald. Des flics armés jusqu'aux dents qui explosent des machoîrs à coup de pieds j'appelle cela des animaux. Si j'avais été victime de cela, je me serais vengé de manière autant violente et arbitraire sur les policiers de la ville.

C'est une lecture pour le moins… sélective de ce que Harald a écrit.

[Hidalgo]

Un pacifiste, donc.

Ouais je le connais, il est des fois un peu énervé et excessif, mais c'est un beau gosse intelligent, donc ça passe.