Ferrara, Italy. On the nth beating by the cops

How long will we still accept without reacting?
On February 24 2010 four immigrant kids are arrested in the centre of Ferrara [northern Italy] and taken to the carabinieri station of Via Del Campo. There the cops attack the kids furiously: it looks like the usual story of police brutality hidden behind the walls of a prison, the darkness of a neighbourhood in the night or, as in this case, the conspiracy of silence inside a police station.
This time, however, the carabinieri carry out their aggression in front of the cameras installed in the premises, and they don’t even take care to conceal the infamy they are committing.
The images (which can be seen on www.innocentievasioni.net and on www.italiarazzismo.it) show a carabiniere hitting one of the harmless boys with a truncheon gripped upside down in order to cause more pain; another cop pins another boy down while jumping on his back, which reminds us of the murder of Federico Aldrovandi, beaten to death by four pigs in uniform in the same city of Ferrara in 2005. This beating, captured by the cops’ cameras, takes place while other cops watch passively.
The four kids are held in the carabinieri station for hours and eventually accused of resistance to public official, according to the style of these pigs who first beat you and then denounce you.
A trial against the four boys will be held on May 11.
The fact that this is not an isolated episode but one of an infinite series is proved not only by the press reports that sporadically relate the most disgusting cases of police violence, notably when someone is killed by the men in uniform, but also by the widespread arrogance displayed by the military when they patrol and control the territory and the cities of this country in an escalation of abuse, violence and intimidation addressed especially against migrants. The massive presence of police and soldiers in many Italian urban centres serves to get us accustomed to all this.
From Aldrovandi to Cucchi, from Lonzi to Uva [all of them killed by the Italian police and carabinieri], from Carlo Giuliani to the many who ‘committed suicide’ in prison, from the migrants who gulp down blades and pieces of glass in protest at their imprisonment to those who die while escaping anti-immigration raids, we wonder how many will have to die before rage flows from the heart of people and pushes them to make the only right and wise decision: to revolt openly and incessantly against the apparatus of institutionalised violence, against the fascist structures and men of this State murderer.
To all those who celebrate May Day in these times of crisis, we suggest to have a look at Greece so that you can understand how the cops are never on the side of people but they are there to defend the interests of capitalists, multinationals and banks. There is nothing to celebrate. Quite the opposite.
Anarchists from Ferrara – 1st May 2010.