Climate of very high tension a Bologna for the clashes between police And environmentalists to the Don Bosco park. Already in the early hours of this Thursday, 50-60 activists opposed to the cutting of trees for the construction of the tram construction site showed up in the area to stop the work. A protest that has been going on for months, connected to the construction project of the new Besta schools, a redevelopment that would lead to the cutting of 31 trees but also to the compensation of the greenery with the planting of other specimens. If yesterday the skirmishes were only verbal, this morning physical contact was recorded: the officers were in fact forced to launch charges towards the demonstrators.
According to what was reported, a girl was injured with a very strong baton to the head while several policemen were injured by the violence of environmentalists. In particular, according to the police headquarters, a couple of officers were hit by a punch and a slap. Four activists were stopped. One of them was taken to the police headquarters for having punched a mobile unit operator who was trying to get him down from a tree. The same goes for a girl, she is guilty of hitting a Digos officer with a slap.
“Occupying a construction site and stopping it is a crime, even a very serious one”the first reaction of the mayor of Bologna Matteo Lepore as far as recorded at the Don Bosco park: “We can’t pretend that it hasn’t been happening for months and therefore, it’s always sad when moments of tension arrive, but we are not faced with an ordinary and normal situation”. There preccint made it known that the police officers attempted dialogue to convince those who climbed trees and those who resisted to desist from their conduct, complete with verbal attacks and insults.
“The larger groups that continued with a hostile attitude were repelled with light pushes and in some cases with the use of shields, without the use of truncheons”we read in a note: “Despite the serious difficulties, the public order service has so far allowed the felling of around eight trees, guaranteeing part of the felling operations scheduled for today”.
