The notoriously racist Los Angeles police trained Genoa police. Forward Reuters

Genoa Police Unit Trained by LAPD
> >Tue Aug 07 2001
> >
> >ROME (Reuters) - An elite Italian police unit which carried out a
> >bloody raid against protesters at a Group of Eight summit in Genoa
> >was trained by U.S. police chiefs, an Italian
> newspaper reported
> >Tuesday.
> >
> >For four months, 70 specially selected officers
> were trained by two
> >Los Angeles police sheriffs. A larger number of
> police also received
> >a week-long training course from the Americans,
> according to the
> >Communist daily Liberazione.
> >
> >"The prime responsibility of the two Los Angeles sheriffs was to
> >train the men from the special unit in the use of American aluminum
> >batons," an unidentified policeman who took part in the one-week
> >course was quoted as saying.
> >
> >"From the start, they openly criticized the way in which Italian
> >police carry out public order," he said.
> >
> >Not only is the use of foreign expertise likely to
> cause consternation, but the fact the officers came from
> Los Angeles, a
> >city scarred by mass riots in 1992 following the police beating of
> >black motorist Rodney King, also raises serious
> questions.
> >
> >In a midnight assault on a school which was acting as
> a headquarters
> >for protest groups during the July 20-22 summit, 62
> people were
> >injured and 93 arrested. Many were laid out on
> stretchers with blood-
> >stained faces.
> >
> >Reporters who entered the school soon afterwards saw
> blood stains on
> >the walls and broken teeth scattered on the floor.
> At least one
> >protester has since undergone brain surgery.
> >
> >Allegations of police brutality have flooded in and three top police
> >officials have been transferred by the interior
> minister, who has
> >faced calls for his own resignation.
> >
> >The Interior Ministry declined to make a comment at
> this time on the
> >involvement of the American sheriffs.
> >
> >As well as brutality, there were also allegations that police
> >sexually assaulted female protesters. Two weeks
> after the summit,
> >nearly 50 demonstrators are still in prison. Many say
> their human and
> >civil rights have been violated.
> >
> >The police source told the paper the American
> sheriffs had said
> >repeatedly that "in Los Angeles all we need is a nucleus of 20 cops
> >to disperse hundreds of demonstrators because we can
> fire rubber
> >bullets which wound, but don't kill."
> >
> >On the first day of the Genoa summit, a 23-year-old
> protester who was
> >attacking a police vehicle was shot and killed by an Italian
> >paramilitary policeman.
> >
> >The source also said that the week-long course he had been assigned
> >to was more like a military boot camp.
> >
> >"We marched, learned how to form shield defenses
> and how to jump
> >through fire or out of a moving vehicle," he said.
> >
> >"It was more like a medieval tournament. In the end
> we were doing
> >purely military training. There seemed no
> difference between police
> >officers and soldiers."

original article here:

http://italy.indymedia.org/front.php?article_id=14397

italy.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=14397

Why trust Reuters to do a proper translation and summary?

Here's an English translation of the full original Italian
article, both available at:

http://italy.indymedia.org/front.php?article_id=14397

> The model was to imitate the Los Angeles police. The experiment was
> carried out in the school at Diaz by seventy policemen of the seventh
> squad of the first mobile unit, who had been trained by two sheriffs
> from Los Angeles. Other men in the mobile units took a one week
> course at Ponte Galeria. Those of the seventh squad, i.e. of the
> experimental squad, were scrupulously selected, and spent four months
> of preparation. "Those two sheriffs from Los Angeles", tells a
> policeman who took the course in the training centre of Ponte Galeria
> in Rome,
>
> "They were called Crick and Crock because one was very big and the
> other very small. Their task was to train the men of the experimental
> squad in the American way of using aluminium batons. The two sheriffs
> openly criticised the way in which the Italian police carry out
> public order. After they saw us parading and marching, they said: "
>
> "'There are too many of you; for us in Los Angeles, a squad of twenty
> policemen is enough to disperse hundreds of demonstrators because we
> can shoot rubber bullets, which hurt, but do not kill. What use is
> your firearm to you? You cannot use it, because your lead bullets
> kill.'"
>
> "Our officials answered that the strategy of our mobile units is
> based on numerical force and the compactness of action in order to
> avoid any deaths from one side or the other. Apart from the special
> training of the experimental unit [tr: the 70 men in the 7th squad
> who went to Diaz school], what occurred in the seven days [tr: for
> members of other mobile units] was only marching, tests and proofs of
> bravery like passing through fire or jumping down from a car in
> motion. It seemed like being returned to the tournaments of the
> Middle Ages. Now they make us do military training. What difference
> is there between policemen and soldiers?"

italy.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=14397