Police infiltration in Genoa

national | summit mobilisations | opinion/analysis

Thursday April 29, 2004 01:39

by Orla Ni Chomhrai

I thought people might be interested in the following pieces which refer to the police infiltrating the Genoa protests to start trouble. They actually admited to doing this.
Orla

These are two sections from two articles on this subject. I have given the links so that people can read the full pieces.

Protesters Beware
Protesters Beware Italian Police Incited The Violence At 2001 G8 Summit, Official Inquires Reveal http://www.tompaine.com/feature2.cfm/ID/7099
...'The word "Genoa" became virtually synonymous in the public mind with "violent protestors."

Now it turns out that U.S.-trained police were responsible for the worst of the bloodshed in Genoa but that is not making headlines -- at least not in the U.S.A.

In an official inquiry, police in Genoa have admitted to fabricating evidence against the G-8 activists, deploying provocateurs i

n the activists' ranks, and even to planting Molotov cocktails in a school used by the protestors as a base.

Activists have alleged this all along, although their claims have been roundly dismissed since the events occurred. But now it turns out an elite police unit, which received four months of training from two Los Angeles police sheriffs, planted phony explosives at the Dias school as a pretext for shutting the place down and making mass arrests. Of the 93 people arrested, 72 suffered police-inflicted injuries.'

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and MEDIA ADVISORY: Media Missing New Evidence About Genoa Violence

http://www.fair.org/activism/genoa-update.html

'Another story by Carroll (Guardian, 7/23/01) focused on allegations that segments of the supposedly anarchist "black block" in Genoa-- the group most often held up as proof that globalization activists are violent-- were in fact provocateurs from European security forces. Groups of black-clad people "burned buildings, ransacked shops and attacked banks with crowbars and scaffolding" during the protests, reported Carroll. Some attacked journalists, "smashing their equipment and tearing up their notebooks." Yet "few, if any" of these people were arrested, and local activists seemed not to know the people involved.

The Guardian quoted Francesco Martone, a Green Party senator for Genoa, alleging that police and neo-fascists "worked together to infiltrate the genuine protesters" and discredit the left. It also quoted an Italian communist MP, Luigi Malabarba: "I saw groups of German and French people dressed as demonstrators in black with iron bars inside the police station near the Piazza di Kennedy. Draw your own conclusions."