On this day, 21 July 2001, over 300 Italian police in Genoa raided the Armando Diaz school and attacked the mostly sleeping protesters and journalists who were staying there, during demonstrations against a G8 summit in the city. 82 of the 93 people in the school were brutally beaten, with three put in comas. For example, Lena Zulke had her skull fractured and 5 ribs broken. The victims were then arrested and tortured by officers, who cut the hair off several detainees with knives, and forced people to sing fascist songs and say "Viva Pinochet". Officers racially abused detainees, calling them “Jewish” and “g*psies”. Those arrested recounted that police gave Nazi salutes and had pictures of fascist dictator Benito Mussolini on their walls. One eyewitness, known as Starhawk, reported: "They beat the men and the women. They broke bones, smashed teeth, shattered skulls. They left blood on the walls, on the windows, a pool of it in every spot where people had been sleeping. When they had finished their work, they brought in the ambulances. All night long we watched from across the street as the stretchers were carried out, as people were taken to the jail ward of the hospital, or simply to jail." The police planted weapons which had been seized elsewhere in the city, like crowbars and hammers, inside the school, to justify the raid and the violence. After years of campaigning, 15 police officers and doctors were sentenced to jail for their abuses, however none of them were actually punished as the convictions were wiped out by a statute of limitations. None of them was convicted for torture as torture is not technically a crime in Italy. Some officers were convicted of fabricating evidence, but these offences were given an amnesty. At least one officer convicted for this crime was later promoted. While the police got off, protesters arrested in the school were still being jailed years later, as they were not covered by the statute of limitations. Learn more about the Genoa protests and street battles in this new book: https://shop.workingclasshistory.com/products/from-riot-to-insurrection-the-g8-summit-of-2001-the-battle-of-genoa-tomas-rothaus
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