To unleash a quarter of an hour of unheard of violence in one of Rome’s multi-ethnic neighborhoods, Torpignattarait was a group of Indian children playing soccer. This morning the word of mouth that is spreading on the anti-fascist chats in the area has left many Romans speechless. The news was reported by La Repubblica, reporting the insults that preceded the explosion of violence.You fucking niggers, go back to your homes. We are racist, is there a problem?”.
In the end, a 44-year-old Indian man was injured in the throat with a bottleneck. He was taken to the Vannini hospital and treated with a 25-day prognosis. The one who fared the worst, along with him, was a 60-year-old man originally from Bangladesh, who got off the bus at the wrong time and in the wrong place and was savagely beaten only because the color of his skin betrayed his origins.
Sunday evening, June 30, Sangalli park, Torpignattara, East Rome, shortly after 10 pm. Three Italian boys and three Italian girls begin to bother some young Indians, many children, between the ages of 6 and 15, who were playing football. The three Italians steal the ball and start playing with it, while the girls insult the very young Indians. “Go back to your country. Shitty Indians. Negroes. This is our home,” are the phrases reported in the news of Repubblica. A fifteen-year-old Indian girl, born in Italy, who was looking after her little brother, who was turning 9 that very evening, responds to the insults: “Don’t you have anything more intelligent to say?” And the Italian girl’s reply is: “I’m racist, do you have a problem?”.
After 11 the children ask for the ball back, it is time to go home. Three parents, worried about the delay, arrive at the park and a fight breaks out. About fifteen young men and men from the neighborhood, all Italian, come to the aid of the Italian boys. A full beer bottle flies and hits a 49-year-old Indian man. It’s the signal, the slaughter begins. “I’ve never seen so much anger”, are the words of a witness who begins to shout, making the Italian racists flee. A Ku Klux Klan ambush a quarter of an hour from the center of Rome. An episode that will remain in the recent history of the city and that will leave a deep scar in that neighborhood and beyond.
The provincial committee of the ANPI of Rome and the sections of the V Municipio, “Giorgio Marincola” Pigneto-Tor Pignattara-Certosa, “Giordano Sangalli” Centocelle and “Rosario Bentivegna” Villa Gordiani, express the greatest indignation and firmly condemn the very serious racist attacks against children and citizens, occurred only because of the color of the skin, perpetrated by a group of despicable squadristi who then promptly and cowardly disappeared when the police arrived, called by indignant citizens. The insults and attacks that then occurred in the park named after Giordano Sangalli, a very young partisan from Torpignattara who died at 17 in the battle of Monte Tancia to restore freedom and dignity to the country after more than twenty years of fascist violence and racism make, if it were possible, the facts even more aberrant.
“We ask – we read in the note – the Minister of the Interior to act to identify and bring to justice the despicable perpetrators of these very serious acts of violence, and we hope that the penalties provided by the laws will also be applied to them that punish racism and not just violence itself.”
“This climate of hatred and intolerance that fuels fascist violence in our cities is the fruit knowingly cultivated by those who dream of the return of the monsters defeated eighty years ago by the Resistance of the partisans and the War of Liberation of the Patriots. And it is for these reasons that it is essential that Civil Society and all democratic and anti-fascist forces and associations unite to monitor and safeguard our neighborhoods from episodes like this, which are recurring with ever more worrying frequency”.
“In our place they will find us, in the neighborhoods, in the schools, in the universities, in the workplaces together with all the social, political and trade union forces that they believe in a society made not only of tolerancebut of active friendship and solidarity”.
Today open assembly called by Anpi and Arci at Parco Sangalli
“Arci and Anpi Roma and the solidarity communities of the neighborhood – reads a note – invite everyone to an open assembly at Parco Sangalli, this afternoon, Tuesday 2 July, at 7 pm.
We feel the need to mobilize immediately to express our solidarity with the neighborhood and the families affected, let’s join words and ideas to free every space from violence and fear”.
