Mother fucking cops and mother fucking black block. "We found ourselves running like hell, not from the police, but from the black block," said one activist who says she is afraid of fire.

Mother fucking cops and mother fucking black block. "We found ourselves running like hell, not from the police, but from the black block," said one activist who says she is afraid of fire.

Her pacifist affinity group came face to face with the black block in the streets of genoa Friday. Shortly after, the police arrived, and Molotov cocktails appeared. But in Genoa this weekend, if the police arrive, you'd better make yourself scarce even if you aren't smashing small locally owned shops, or burning banks.

In front of the Piazzale Martin Luther King, squads of the Italian Para Military known as the Carabinieri, attacked people who had returned from their demonstrations to get some food and rest in the Convergence area. The Carabinieri drove armoured personnel carriers with tank tracks and bull dozer blades attached to the front. They fired canisters of tear gas into the area where people were eating, and onto the street where people were standing.

And they kicked people and used their sticks to beat people who they did not appreciate. Unless they appreciated beating people up who weren't doing anything. One bicyclist who looked as though he was just having a look at things when he was caught between two groups of carabinieri. At least one of them started kicking him and his bike violently until people nearby protested and other cops intervened. Vania, who is from Genoa, described what he saw happen there.

"There are tanks, and there are hundreds of Carabinieri with their gas masks on, hundreds of them. And you don't even really understand what is their reason for doing it, because they threw the gas stuff inside the place where the people were eating, and they were drinking, and just having a quiet time, and they started invading with all this gas stuff, and all the people fled and went away from there."

But the Carabinieri didn't let the people go so easily. They ran in full riot gear down the street, and several dozen scoured the rocks along the coast. A woman in a bikini watched as police dragged several young people onto the street after beating them with their sticks. Police used riot shields to hide a young man's injuries as they carried him past photographers.

We want to know how the cops are allowed to be such bastards. We want to know why people smash small, local shops and property. Both of these things make people angry, and when people are angry they fight. But who will fight against who? Let's not make enemies of ourselves.