Thousands of people are expected to
turn out for a demonstration in Pisa on Saturday to call for the
resignation of the local police commissioner following the
clashes between riot police and demonstrators at a
pro-Palestinian protest last Friday that left five protesters
including two minors needing emergency medical treatment and
prompted a rare rebuke from President Sergio Mattarella, the
organisers said on Friday.
Student collectives and antagonist groups submitted formal
notification of the event to police headquarters along with an
indication of the planned route starting from Piazza Vittorio
Emanuele at 2 pm across the city centre to Piazza dei Cavalieri,
the scene of police baton-charges last week.
Images of some police in Pisa repeatedly hitting students over
the head shocked many Italians amid reports of clashes between
police and demonstrators at other pro-Palestinian protests in
other cities on the same day.
Mattarella said subsequently that "truncheons fail young people"
and Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi echoed his words by
saying that clashes between police and minors at demonstrations
are always a failure, while also warning against conducting
summary trials of officers.
Some 19 officers are reportedly being investigated in an
internal police probe into the policing in Pisa.
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