The bloody battle of Genoa

[CHIMO]

It was just before midnight when the first police officer hit Mark Covell, swiping his truncheon down on his left shoulder. Covell did his best to yell out in Italian that he was a journalist but, within seconds, he was surrounded by riot-squad officers thrashing him with their sticks. For a while, he managed to stay on his feet but then a baton blow to the knee sent him crashing to the pavement.

Lying on his face in the dark, bruised and scared, he was aware of police all around him, massing to attack the Diaz Pertini school building where 93 young demonstrators were bedding down on the floor for the night. Covell's best hope was that they would break through the chain around the front gates without paying him any more attention. If that happened, he could get up and limp across the street to the safety of the Indymedia centre, where he had spent the past three days filing reports on the G8 summit and on its violent policing.

It was at that moment that a police officer sauntered over to him and kicked him in the chest with such force that the entire lefthand side of his rib cage caved in, breaking half-a-dozen ribs whose splintered ends then shredded the membrane of his left lung. Covell, who is 5ft 8in and weighs less than eight stone, was lifted off the pavement and sent flying into the street. He heard the policeman laugh. The thought formed in Covell's mind: "I'm not going to make it."

Fifty-two days after the attack on the Diaz school, 19 men used planes full of passengers as flying bombs and shifted the bedrock of assumptions on which western democracies had based their business. Since then, politicians who would never describe themselves as fascists have allowed the mass tapping of telephones and monitoring of emails, detention without trial, systematic torture, the calibrated drowning of detainees, unlimited house arrest and the targeted killing of suspects, while the procedure of extradition has been replaced by "extraordinary rendition". This isn't fascism with jack-booted dictators with foam on their lips. It's the pragmatism of nicely turned-out politicians. But the result looks very similar. Genoa tells us that when the state feels threatened, the rule of law can be suspended. Anywhere.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jul/17/italy.g8

[elleng]

1. Aux armes, citoyens,

formez nos bataillons!

[CHIMO]

2. Cowen in Paris for Bastille Day

The Taoiseach was in Paris today attending Bastille Day celebrations at the invitation of French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

All EU leaders attended the event to mark the French presidency of the EU.

The event commemorates the storming of the Bastille prison and the start of the French revolution of 1789.

The Arc de Triomphe and the Champs-Élysées were decorated with French and European flags.

http://www.rte.ie/news/2008/0714/france.html

No problems. All is going well.

[struggle4progress]

3. Officials guilty of brutality at Genoa G8 riots won’t be jailed

John Hooper

Rome: The 15 Italian police officers and doctors sentenced to jail for brutally mistreating detenus at a holding camp after the 2001 G8 riots in Genoa, Italy, were on Tuesday celebrating their freedom after it became clear that none of them would actually serve prison terms.

Defendants in Italy do not go to jail for most offences until they have exhausted all the appeals to which they are entitled, normally at least two.

And in this case, it emerged that the convictions and sentences alike would be wiped out by a statute of limitations next year.

Late on Monday, judges in Genoa where the summit was held convicted 15 accused and acquitted a further 30. Those found guilty, including the camp commander, Biagio Gugliotta, were given jail sentences ranging from five months to five years. The only real effect of the verdict will be to allow the victims to receive compensation ...

http://www.hindu.com/2008/07/18/stories/2008071855681900.htm

[Matilda]

4. It might be an "Italian tradition" (omerta),

but it's also a tradition of cops worldwide.

I've long believed that police and criminals are cut from the same cloth.

They just have different paymasters. And sometimes not even that.