Genoa Scandal
Remember those violent clashes between police and demonstrators at the G8 summit in Genoa? The Italian press now reports that the cops have admitted to fabricating evidence against the protesters. My Italian's no good, but fortunately, the BBC is on the story:
"At the centre of the inquiry is a police raid on a school being used as a dormitory by anti-globalisation demonstrators, in which dozens of people were injured. A senior officer, Pietro Troiani, reportedly admitted under questioning that two petrol bombs allegedly found at the school were planted by police to justify the raid."
In the subsequent assault, police beat demonstrators, destroyed their computers, and smashed the school's windows.
That's not the only piece of fakery to come to light. "Attention is also focusing on a knife attack on one police officer, Massimo Nucera," reports the BBC. "A senior police chief, Franco Gratteri, head of the Central Operations Services, is quoted as saying that the stabbing was not carried out by protesters, but was simulated."
The leftist media-watchers at FAIR are complaining that the scandal hasn't gotten much coverage from the American press. I've got a long litany of disagreements with FAIR over the years, but this time they've got a point.
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Well, if and when the Italian cops that are responsible get fired, I am sure they can get jobs with the LAPD, who will consider them pre-trained.
Cops who lie have no place in a constitutional replublic. I'm reminded of a stand-out line in the classic 1958 Orson Welles film Touch of Evil, uttered by Ramon Miguel Vargas, played by Chuck Heston: "A policeman's job is only easy in a police state..."