Story of a Beating In Rome: the Viminale Police station

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  • This Event Happened in 23 April 1997 - Rome (Italy)
    gesualdob.nexus.it.

    • After the sit-in at the Peruvian embassy -- which we recounted a few days ago -- the group of comrades involved began to disperse, as things seemed to be over. At the central train station, however, a police team was scanning peopl'es faces as they passed by; one of the police, acting tough with truncheon in hand, tried to break up the crowd. A comrade told him to take it easy, that people were leaving; but the cop, who obviously took orders from no-one, reacted by beating him. The beating was ugly, with kicks, fists and truncheon blows to the head, while the cop shouted that no-one gave him orders, that he was in charge, that this was his beat and he was the "beast" who controlled it. The beating lasted quite a while, as others frightened by such violence looked on powerless to act. Two women comrades then called on the policeman to stop his attack, to recognise that such behaviour was unacceptable in a so-called democratic state. But this only worsened things; at the sight of this intrusion, the cop reacted again, calling on his associates to stop these "whores", which they proceeded to do with kicks, punches and shoves. Their insults were also vicious: "you whores, I'll shove this truncheon up your arse and nothing will save you". It must be said that it took them some effort to subdue these comrades, but eventually they succeeded. They then arrived at the Viminale Police station, a place notorious for the strange things that happen there -- above all to immigrants. All three comrades were shoved on a sofa, and the male comrade was handcuffed very tightly. Not a minute had gone by when six or seven men in uniform entered, carrying sticks and truncheons. While one guarded the door, the others circled the sofa. While one of them put on surgeon's gloves,another turned his truncheon around in order to strike with the handle, which is harder, but more effective. We saw that it was the same cop who had "rounded us up" earlier, and that we wanted to continue in the same fashion. The cop wearing gloves grabbed the male comrade by the throat, while the others began to beat his head and body. They waited for us to react so that they would have a pretence to continue, but we did not, except verbally. Now that we knew how this worked, we had no choice. All of this lasted about quarter an hour, then we began to cry out loudly that we would no longer tolerate blows or insults, someone must hear us!! The station inspector, deputy head and administrator [responsabile] then arrived, looked around a bit, seemed indignant, reproached the cop who'd been taking the lead, and dragged him out. The beating was over, we asked to be taken to a hospital, but we were forced to wait still longer, only to receive . . . a glass of water! ! ! In the meantime the cop who had started it all, clearly pleased with his efforts despite his dressing-down, returned to the room where he had begun his sadistic beating, and asked his colleagues to accompany him to hospital . . .whence he returned limping, having received seven days sick leave!! After many hours of waiting we finally made it to a hospital. The doctor who saw us immediately called the admissions desk, but after a brief discussion with the police returned to tell us that there weren't any beds, and that we'd have to avail ourselves of the sick bays at the Rebibbia and Regina Coeli prison. This horrific day ended the day after, when the judge responsible for our committal hearing releasing us, while confirming our arrest for "aggravated aggression". We wish to add just a few comments to this brief chronicle of events: what happened was certainly the first episode of its type, but clearly we want it to be the last!!! What happened in the police station at the hands of this "Nazi-style" squad is a symptom of a society becoming increasingly more rightwing, increasingly more repressive; the total press blackout [censura] on the matter also reminds us of ugly and dangerous times past. The PDS Minister Napolitano knows very well what the police were like in the past, and he seems uninterested in the fact that they have not changed; clearly his interests lie elsewhere. We cannot allow such things to happen; if a civil society still exists, it must listen, with force, with dignity. There is no need to spill a lot of ink over the matter: the facts are there, and an immediate position must be taken on them. It is also our intention to take legal recourse in denouncing these fascist methods. Neo-liberalism looms over us: we will stop it, we won't allow anyone to turn the world into one endless massacre!! The comrades who were arrested.

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