The statement issued at the end of the urban guerrilla war generated by the pro-Palestinian movement against the match between Virtus and Maccabi-Tel Aviv was, once again, a war bulletin: 14 officers were injured, more than could be imagined, as the level of clashes increased on Friday.
The procession started with 5,000 demonstrators, then diminished as the clashes began, most of them linked to antagonistic fringe groups and local social centers, although a small part of them came from outside: there was Askatasuna from Turin but there were also anarchists and professionals in the field of disorder, including university collectives and student groups, who came from neighboring areas, but in small numbers, no more than 100 units.
And to arm the antagonists in the square there were not only wooden and iron sticks, recovered from construction sites, unsealed, and not even just rocks and glass bottles. This time, in Bologna, the protesters came armed. A large number of reinforced paper bombs containing nails and metal fragments were thrown at the agent, which, upon exploding, became loose fragments, unpredictable in their direction. But not only that, because several police sources interviewed by Il Giornale revealed that according to their experts, a modified rocket launcher was also used, a solution with an explosive content of less than 100 grams and activated through fuel, which in this case was also added with nails and steel balls, namely ball bearings.
It is easy to understand the damage these parawar artifacts caused when they hit their targets and even some of the officers who were hit suffered serious injuries, especially to the genitals and legs. “This is no longer a difference of opinion, but a terror strategy,” said Domenico Pianese, secretary of the Coisp Police Union. “Thugs disguised as protesters are looking for tragedy, and looking for it scientifically, using every opportunity to turn the streets into battlefields,” he continued. “The aim is to harm officers, as much as possible, in the middle of the street, among the public”, stressed Valter Mazzetti, secretary general of the FSP State Police, classifying what happened yesterday in Bologna as para-terrorism.
The warning from SAP Secretary General Stefano Paoloni was clear: “We note an alarming increase in the level of violence.”
The National Police Officers Association underlined that everything had been studied “as demonstrated by the simultaneous attacks, the paramilitary techniques used, the throwing of objects, paper bombs and eye-level fireworks”. Escalation is an objective fact and there is a risk of bringing the conflict to a point of no return, as there may be more than just injured victims.
