The luxury shops in Via Montenapoleone, closed yesterday for fear of possible devastation, have all reopened, as happened on Saturday and Sunday in Piazza Duomo, Via Torino and Largo La Foppa. At Louis Vuitton they explain that they were closed for two hours in the afternoon while some police cell phones were stationed in front of the shop. "We emptied all the windows like all the shops on the street and some shoppers remained inside for safety", explains the staff who spread their arms and ask: "Is everything calm today?".
Even the shops that suffered devastation in via Torino have reopened, starting from the Carrefour express which now has a heavy metal cladding to a security door damaged in the two days of violence that hit the Lombardy capital. Next to Carrefour there is a historic stationery shop that has existed since 1904 and the window still shows signs of sharp objects used to try to break it.
"We reopened immediately - says the owner - we were targeted but they attacked the shops that sold shoes and t-shirts". Then he spreads his arms: "Afraid? We're moving forward. The police will do something. Not afraid at all."
Meanwhile, this morning, in the Cesare Beccaria juvenile prison in Milan, the interrogations of the 11 minors arrested in the act for the clashes in the center over the weekend began.
The Prosecutor's Office for minors, led by Luca Villa, contests various crimes including devastation and looting and resistance to a public official. At the same time, we are also proceeding with the positions of the other 23 minors under investigation who are at large, for whom precautionary measures have been requested.
The lawyer Francesca Rena defends a 14 year old boy, for whom the Prosecutor's Office has requested precautionary custody in prison. The lawyer asked that no measures be applied. The young man, an eighth grade student born in Italy, "shows even less than his years" and, according to the defense, does not seem fully aware of the seriousness of the facts complained of. He was downtown with his mother when he lost sight of his parent in the crowd. "He got lost, started following the group, saw scenes of urban warfare and unfortunately, like a 14-year-old boy, he just stood there and watched," Rena explained. The boy claims he didn't do anything and the search came back negative. His mother, no longer able to contact him, later discovered that he had been arrested.
On the topic of the videos shot during the clashes and the possible legal relevance of the conduct for the purposes of moral competition, the lawyer observed that "it is not nice or right, ethically, to make videos of certain things, but what fourteen-year-old would not have done it?".
Another minor, a sixteen-year-old defended by the lawyer Michele D'Agostino, was ordered to stay at home. The young man denied the charges. "He went there on his own with a friend for a ride, he wanted to go for a ride and he found himself in the way", reported the lawyer, adding that no goods were found on the boy.
The six adults arrested on Sunday will be questioned between today and tomorrow by investigating judge Maria Idria Gurgo of Castelmenardo. In the afternoon the judge will start with the first boy, the only one under house arrest, and tomorrow morning she will continue with the others in San Vittore. Prosecutor Aurora Stasi, who with the prosecutor Marcello Viola holds the file parallel to that of her colleague Giovanna Cavalleri, asked for validation and the most serious precautionary measure.
They had "no hesitation in using violence, in joining the street riots and in repeating the same behaviors that had occurred only a day earlier" - we read in a document from the Prosecutor's Office - by others. And therefore they showed a "significant criminal capacity" with "sudden destructive actions and rare violence". The investigating judge is expected to file the decision starting the day after tomorrow.
There are about ten urban Daspo (Dacur) issued by the Police Headquarters against young people checked yesterday in Piazza Duomo and the surrounding area after the clashes. These are kids with criminal records or misrepresentations or in possession of potentially dangerous objects such as knives or others. In the meantime, Digos investigations continue to reconstruct the two days of violence and ascertain the responsibilities among the approximately 500 protagonists of the incidents. Some were arrested immediately. The ten reached by Dacur will not be able to enter Milan or some areas of the city for various periods of time.
In Bologna, the arrest of the 21-year-old student, enrolled in Anthropology, stopped on Saturday during the clashes in the station area was confirmed. The investigating judge Roberta Malavasi ordered him to report daily to the judicial police, not accepting the prosecutor's request for house arrest. The young man from Bologna, with no criminal record, is accused of violence for throwing objects at the police, injuries and aggravated resistance. During the arrest he suffered a fracture of the nasal septum and an injury to an eyebrow, for which he was treated immediately afterwards at the Maggiore hospital.
During the hearing, the 21-year-old availed himself of the right not to respond and filed a written statement in which he reconstructed the methods of his arrest, denying having resisted the officers at that time. He said he was tackled from behind and pushed face-first to the ground, adding that he was grabbed by the hair. A policeman, however, declared that the boy would have caused injuries, believed by doctors to be healable in three days. "The judge validated the arrest, but excluded the circumstantial gravity of the crime of resisting a public official contested at the time of the arrest", explains the defender, lawyer Ettore Grenci.
According to the lawyer, the investigating judge would have considered "the boy's version more compatible than that of the policeman, in light of the traumas found in the medical certificates". For the other charges, however, the judge considered that there were serious indications of guilt, ordering a less afflictive precautionary measure compared to the house arrest requested by the Prosecutor's Office. The defense is now considering requesting the acquisition of images from the cameras present in the area of the clashes. "I would like to ask that some videos be acquired. Under the porticoes of Viale Masini I believe there are cameras that could have filmed", explains the lawyer. The defense will also evaluate whether to press charges for the injuries suffered by the 21-year-old.
'Ghost' marches in some cities, fake news spread on social media
No procession, no suspicious presence in a city in any case armored by the police, with carabinieri and police guarding the schools, the train and bus stations and the historic center. But the alarm triggered by the call for a violent demonstration, similar to the one in Milan, which appeared yesterday morning on social media, had an effect: in Cremona this morning there were many absentees from schools and the center was deserted, among the shop windows protected by plywood panels.
Police investigations are underway: they are sifting through the chats that caused panic by announcing the riots. And the hypothesis of a fake circulated precisely to create fear is becoming increasingly accepted. The police are investigating the matter.
Even in Pavia, as in Cremona, the buzz of social media and the web has spread false information about violent actions that should have occurred today in the city and which did not occur. The Carabinieri intensified checks this morning near the train station, the bus station and the main schools of Pavia, following the clashes that occurred last weekend in Milan. An action in line with the directives of the prefect, Francesca De Carlini, as part of the strategies shared within the provincial committee for public order and safety.
The preventive action of the Army soldiers was also implemented following numerous phone calls of concern from some parents, which reached the operations center. The alarm was caused by a social media buzz, with the spread of some chats announcing violent actions in Pavia. "Fortunately, the alarms have all proven to be unfounded - underlines a note from the Carabinieri of Pavia -; the Carabinieri patrols have searched all the areas of greatest interest, without detecting any violence or disturbance of public order. The services will continue in the coming days, paying maximum attention to the younger segments of the population".
