On 16 July 1948 the members of a contingent of policemen engaged in Abbadia San Salvatore (Siena), during the riots that arose immediately after the attack on the secretary of the communist party Palmiro Togliatti, were attacked in an ambush by some rioters who, in a conflict by fire, they fatally wounded the guard Giambattista Carloni. Public security marshal Raniero Virgilio, while he was calling to request help, was attacked and stabbed to death.
The State Police remembered the two policemen who fell in service, with Silver Medals for Military Valour, naming the Hall of Honor of the Piave barracks of the Siena police headquarters in their memory.
The ceremony (Photo) took place in the presence of the deputy chief of police, central director of the criminal police, Raffaele Grassi.
Also present were the police commissioner Pietro Milone, the deputy prefect of Siena Imma Amalfitano, the mayor of Abbadia San Salvatore Fabrizio Tondi and the families of the two policemen Carloni and Virgilio.
Prefect Grassi, in his speech, underlined the importance of memory, which gives solemnity to the stories and lives of Giambattista and Raniero, two brave policemen. Their names, now present on the dedication plaque, recalled Deputy Chief Grassi, honor their sense of duty, their discipline and their sense of the State. Through the commemoration, continued the Deputy Chief of Police, an inseparable bond is formed between the natural families of the two officers and that of the State Police. The hope, concluded Grassi, is that young people, reading their names, absorb the highest values of human beings condensed by the example of the two policemen, who invite us to continue along the path they have traced.
The Deputy Chief of Police, together with the families of the fallen, unveiled the commemorative plaque, blessed by the Chaplain of the State Police.
Before the ceremony, Deputy Chief Grassi met with managers and officials of the Police Headquarters, police stations and specialties in the province of Siena.
