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A letter from Chiaiano.



”Give me a voice and a space so that in tomorrow’s newspapers you can read what happened. They’ll say that the demonstrators came into contact with the police. But I was there. And the story is quite another one. At 8:20 pm at least 100 men, numbering police officers, carabinieri and finance police charged at defenceless people. In the front row there were not just men, but also women of every age and elderly people. Citizens who were tenacious but civil – in front of my eyes – I can still see them with their hands up - those who at the end of via Santa Maria in Cubito had taken control of the cross roads.
Between 7:05 pm and 8:20 pm, the two groups just faced each other. Then the police, in anti-riot gear, started to charge. The scene seemed surreal: to observe from a height, the police just seemed to move forward. But those on the ground could appreciate the technique. Kicks to the shins, blows to the knees with the end of the truncheon. The best tore off watches and bracelets. Thus, in a vain attempt to recover them, there were those who put their hands down and were dragged to the ground by their wrists.
Their advance spared no one. What struck me above all was the violence against the women, so many were pushed to the ground, scratched, pulled about. Behind the plastic of the helmets, what stays in my memory were the eyes of the police officers, that were indifferent and without blinking. When I escaped, more out of surprise than out of fear, they dragged away two young men while so many women were on the tarmac, crumpled up and blue with fear. People shouted but they didn’t respond to the violence. Instead they were angry about the journalists who were safe on the balcony of a pizzeria, busy taking photos.
With every access route closed, at 9:00 pm there were already 20 trucks. But the people of Chiaiano had not left. At 9:30 pm there were more than 1000 people still in the street. This is the story. Give me a voice and a space. So that you know what happened. The Police State and the violent atmosphere of this evening are too similar to totalitarian regimes. Exactly what I talk about, horrified, with my students during the history lessons.”
Elisa Di Guida, teacher of history and philosophy – Naples.

----> Follow the Chiaiano happenings on the website of the Naples Meetup. Click.