A question of self-defence - Fire extinguishers & self defence

[Ken Brown]

Over here in Europe,  the Carabinieri are still big news. People aren't
so much focussing on the dead man (maybe because it does look like
self-defence) but on what the apparent revenge taken by the police
and/or carabinieri on others after the main business was over. The IMC
is getting the most attention.  There are supposed eye-witness reports
from people associated with various  Christian and Green organisations,
who claim they were no-where near the violence, in fact avoided the
streets  because of the violence, yet were picked on by the cops
afterwards.  
BBC account:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_1459000/1459466.stm

There has been a radio interview, broadcast a number of times, with a
man who claims that the cops lined up to take kicks at him as he lay on
the floor. Very effective, as he breaks down and cries part way through
as he says he was convinced he was going to die. Says he blacked out,
and woke up again, only to be kicked in the head again. Is still in
hospital with a punctured lung amongst other things.
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/newsid_1458000/1458347.stm)

These guys are not young thugs out for a fight, most of them are
thirties, some older, and they are mostly well-educated people with
jobs. In other words they probably have friends who are lawyers and
journalists (well, some of them are journalists themselves). So they
probably know how to make a fuss that their own governments will notice.
Whether or not the Italian government will pay any attention is another
matter (Although the city government in Genova itself seems to now be
objecting to what went on).

There are also rumours (maybe no more than that -
http://www.guardian.co.uk/globalisation/story/0,7369,528210,00.html))
about collaboration between police, right-wing organisations, and the
Italian government. If you believe all this then there seems to have
been an element of Italian military who took the opportunity to put the
frighteners on just about anyone they didn't like - Greens, pacifists,
trade unions, socialists, whatever. Berlusconi is a famously dubious
piece of work - friends with fascists (real ones, not just the ordinary
authoritarian conservatives that lefties like me love to call "fascists"
as an insult);  and he has  an egregious monopoly on Italian
broadcasting.  How independent are "private" TV stations and newspapers
when the guy who runs them is also the man in charge of the government?  


Big government (and big business, which is always in bed with big
government and often has more in common with big government than it does
with small business) need protests to keep them awake. Without protest
they become managerial, think they can make decisions  for everyone else
and just get away with it. At best they like to "consult", in other
words, they call a meeting, send some minor bureaucrats to take minutes,
let the people say what they want, then do what they were going to do
anyway. The protest, the demonstration, if necessary the riot, is the
other side of the democratic coin. If the people just take orders, then
the government will carry on just giving orders. Of course in Italy
nowadays big government and big business are the same people.

Ken 

While we're at it,
http://www.lanterna.provincia.genova.it/eng/realizzazione/index.htm is a
webcam on a lighthouse at the entrance to the harbour at Genova, just in
case you fancy some Mediterranean sunshine :-)