Luxury shops in Milan are closing. Prosecutors: 'A rare violence'

The young people arrested in Milan after the two days of devastation showed an "absolute ease with sudden destructive actions and rare violence". And their "criminal capacity," as prosecutors call it, has become so bad that a number of downtown luxury boutiques have remained closed for fear of more looting and clashes.

From Hermès to Chanel to Pomellato. The toll of the urban guerrilla weekend is heavy: net of lost revenue, the damage estimate exceeds one million euros including shattered shop windows, broken furnishings and stolen goods. It is the result of what the mayor Giuseppe Sala, visiting some of the devastated shops with the president of Confcommercio Carlo Sangalli, defined as "unacceptable and unjustifiable" behavior. And "I have the feeling - he added - that these moments of tension are not over".

Among the fifty arrested, only eleven are adults, aged between 18 and 24. All the others are minors. Swarms of young people and very young people who, for no apparent reason, vandalized and spread terror in the Milanese shopping streets until they reached Piazza Duomo.

The balance is still provisional and the ongoing investigations could make it grow further. The charges formulated by the ordinary and juvenile prosecutor's office are devastation and looting, a crime that carries penalties of 8 to 15 years, and multi-aggravated resistance. These are protests that indicate a new phenomenon, never seen before, which investigators and investigators are questioning and measuring: children, aged 12 and 13 and up, who have improvised as 'casseurs' even without having ever breathed the anger of the French banlieues. Who has the look of a Maranza, but what a Maranza he isn't. Children of working people, second and third generation immigrants who do not recognize themselves in their integrated parents, or Italian children who, whatever their social class, are adrift without a point of reference in the adult world. However, the majority are under 18, some coming from outside the city: Varese, Lecco, Novara, Turin and other centers in the North and hinterland. They poured into the central streets of Milan and took part in an authorized demonstration, 'Italy in the square', on Saturday. Or as happened on Sunday, they found themselves in clusters, to 'strike' without an apparent reason and without any movement behind them. The important thing was to 'hit' and 'lynch' the police forces by throwing baskets, bins and tables, cobblestones and glass bottles, leaving wounded among the police forces on the ground.

"Someone was looking for the dead man" thundered the deputy prime minister and leader of the League Matteo Salvini, relaunching the Northern League's proposals for a further anti-violent crackdown. And that the situation is still explosive is also demonstrated by the tensions, complete with shoving, shouting and insults, at the demonstration organized by the centre-right in Piazza Duomo. "We will all remigrate" was the centre-right banner which raised tensions with the young people who had gathered around. A phenomenon for which now the judiciary, especially those for minors, is forced to make an "exceptional" effort.

Today the Prosecutor's Office led by Luca Villa sent the first 11 requests to validate the arrests and precautionary measures to the investigating judge on duty and tomorrow the interrogations will begin at Berccaria. Interrogations which, however, for the 5 adults blocked two days ago took place in the afternoon, in San Vittore, before judge Fabrizio Filice. Who, again tomorrow, will file his provision regarding the request of the prosecutor Giovanna Cavalleri who is dealing with the investigations with her colleague Aurora Stasi and with the coordination of the prosecutor Marcello Viola. While the 24-year-old assisted by the lawyer Guido Guella defended himself by stating that he had "done nothing, I was the wrong person in the wrong place and at the wrong time", for the prosecutors, we read in the documents, this sort of Italian casseur "showed an absolute ease in carrying out sudden destructive actions of rare violence", showed "a significant criminal capacity" and an inability to "self-control". And since there is a "real" danger that they could vandalize Milan again, it is better that they remain in prison.