It is rare that police brutality on such a scale is so fully exposed as is happening right now in Europe (See amazing links below). There are HUGE protests in many cities in Italy after the massive G8 police brutality against some of the 200,000 PEACEFUL protesters of all ages, both genders, etc.. The Italy Genoa G8 comparisons to South America, Chile, Pinochet, Mussolini's reign, Argentinean death squads, Operation Condor, etc. are frequent in the European media.

Let us anti-prohibitionists connect the dots to the drug war and death squads in Latin America and elsewhere. See drug war and death squads link at the end.

The US media is thunderingly silent on the massive post-G8 European media coverage, and protests in hundreds of cities worldwide. It is increasingly clear to many worldwide that the G8 and the USA and Bush and corporate-approved death squads are one and the same.



The G8 and other major powers promised to alleviate the debt tyranny on the third world by now. They have hardly done a thing.

To the contrary, the US Republicrats have actually eliminated some major bankruptcy rights in the USA, too. It is exploitation on a world scale. Wealth inequality gets worse and worse in the USA and worldwide. Police forces are increasingly militarized, SWAT-trained, out-of-control paramilitaries. The drug war is often the major reason to keep them that way.



Genoa - a police officer tells what happened. English translation of one of the Italian newspaper articles is at the first Indymedia link below. One of the Italian newspaper article sources below has many more links in the column to the right of the source article. BBC World Service reported on this police confession in its world reports carried on some public radio stations in the early mornings overnight in the USA. Maybe a few people heard it in the USA. Otherwise, overall, there is a post-G8 mainstream media blackout in the USA, or only very minor, vastly-distorted, inaccurate reports. BBC audio from beaten, emotionally-distraught British man who thought he was going to die: "It's a horrible thing when you hear your bones breaking..."



http://www.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=55625 English. http://italy.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=9072 English. http://italy.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=8954 Italian. http://www.repubblica.it/online/politica/gottododici/pestaggi/pestaggi.html http://www.repubblica.it/quotidiano/repubblica/20010726/esteri/04espi.html



From the police confession article:
"The main gate opened continuously - tells the police officer - out of the vans came youth while getting a beating. They made them stand against the wall. When they came in they smashed their heads against the wall. They peed on someone, others were beaten if they didn't sing fascist songs. A girl was vomiting blood and the chiefs of the prison police just watched. To the ladies they said that they were going to rape them with their sticks... well, it's a waste of time telling what you've already read."

Outrage mounts over police action at G8. Reuters. "Witness accounts of brutal beatings have appeared in media throughout Europe and criticisms from parliamentarians and human rights groups have poured into Italy ... The other inquiries focus on a police raid on a school used as sleeping quarters of umbrella protest group the Genoa Social Forum (GSF)." http://www.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=55598



NORTH AMERICAN MEDIA SILENT ON MASSIVE POST-G8 ITALIAN PROTESTS. "European news sources confirm that approximately 150,000 people marched through the city centre's of Rome (approx. 50,000), Milan (approx. 45,000), Balogna (approx. 15,000), Florence (approx. 6,000), Genoa (approx. 5,000), Napoli (approx. 5,000), Palermo (approx. 2,000), Trieste (approx. 2,000) and a number of others, bringing the total number of participating cities to about thirty." http://uk.indymedia.org/display.php3?article_id=8081



News Report On Police Brutality At G8 Protest. BBC report on GSF-IMC police raid (and other) beatings; police confessor admitting to the brutality; British and others beaten, seriously injured, and terrorized; politicians demanding accountability. BBC location of article has horrific PHOTO labeled "Mark Covell is in hospital in Genoa with serious injuries." The BBC source has many more G8 brutality articles linked on the right side of the article. "This is a very big wound for the city. It's the kind of thing we used to experience 20 years ago." -Francesco Martone, Green Party senator. http://www.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=55606 http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/newsid_1457000/1457920.stm



CITIES IN PROTEST (new). List of hundreds of cities worldwide who have already protested the police and prison guard brutality at the Genoa G8 events and protests; and the brutal, unprovoked, police beatings at Italy Indymedia, Genoa Social Forum, and Radio Gap. http://italy.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=9087

Genoa - a police officer tells what happened (english)
by La Repubblica 5:37pm Thu Jul 26 '01 (Modified on 10:31pm Thu Jul 26 '01)
whosejustice@hotmail.com http://www.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=55625



An anonymous police officer tell about G8s "Chilean night" when the school (where GSF was) was raided. The Italian newspaper La Repubblica brings an interview with the police officer.

[Translation begins]

Genoa - a police officer tells what happened

An anonymous police officer tell about G8s "Chilean night" when the school (where GSF was) was raided. The Italian newspaper La Repubblica brings an interview with the police officer.

This is an attempt at translating that article

He says: "I'm sorry to say that it's all true. Even more. I can still feel the smell from those hours, the smell from the arrestee's fecies, those who didn't get to go to the toilet. But that night started a week before when hundreds of agents of the prison police arrived."



This is the first time someone inside the police who was there talks about what happened. Our source tells that "within the police force there's still lots of fascism, we have many easily influenced young people, and many of us applauded what happened that night. But all the mess (refers to what happened to the arrested after the raid, t.n.) was the prison police's doing."

And the systematic beatings at the school? "We did that. There are those who say it was an act of revenge, others that we received a precise command from Rome: arrest at all costs. Colleagues from Rome were behind the attack. It was crazy. Both for the victims, our reputation and the chance of an uprising by the people. That night there were several at the police station that sweared, knowing that if the 20.000 leaving Genova from Brignole station heard about this, they could face a true riot, uprising.



The transformation of the barracs in Bolzaneto into a "lager" (prison camp) starts monday when a special unit arrives - a unit already infamous because of its excessive use of force in the Opera-prison intervention. They had just arrived (...) and take immediately control over parts of the barrack - the part that for weeks had been made into a prison, with an infirmary, for the arrested at the G8.

The gym was transformed into an arrival- and identification centre. All the detained protesters are brought here, those who have documents show them, they take fingerprints of everyone. Beside the gym, next to the tennis court there is a little house that has been renovated just for the summit and turned into a regular prison.



At the entrance there are to big open rooms that serve as a waiting room. it was here Genova's assistant chief in the Digos (special police unit) spent Saturday night until Sunday morning with carabinieri and other police officers.

"What happened at the school and that continued here at Bolzaneto was a suspension of rights, an empty space in the constitution. I tried to tell colleagues, but they only answered that: we don't have to be afraid, our back is covered."

That night. "The main gate opened continuously - tells the police officer - out of the vans came youth while getting a beating. They made them stand against the wall. When they came in they smashed their heads against the wall. They peed on someone, others were beaten if they didn't sing fascist songs. A girl was vomiting blood and the chiefs of the prison police just watched. To the ladies they said that they were going to rape them with they're sticks... well, it's a waste of time telling what you've already read."



And you, the others? "There weren't many of us. Most were still in Genoa to guard the red zone. Still, there were people who accepted what happened, while others intervened, like this inspector that stopped the beating of a man by saying "this is not your house". And there were those like me that maybe didn't do enough, and that today are ashamed."

And if the prison police hadn't been there? "I don't think it would have gone that far. Our commandante is a hard man, but of the old school, those who know what honour is and that knows how to educate his men, we call him Rommel."

What happened to the democratic police officers? "We're still many - answers the police officer - but today we're both afraid and shameful."

[Translation and Indymedia article ends]



All the above links are just a few of the many CLICKABLE links at the compilation Indymedia page below. More links are added as comments as they are found. If the link is not working, try back later. Indymedia sites are sometimes offline: