Over 200 people were arrested, 80% of them minors. More than 100 police officers were injured . These are the numbers from yesterday's urban warfare in central Milan .

After Saturday's incident, young people gathered again near Piazza Duomo: their distinguishing feature was black clothing, with sweatshirts and hoodies. They again smashed shop windows and looted shops and supermarkets .

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has called a meeting on public order. And Mayor Giuseppe Sala, after criticizing the few police officers who took to the streets on Saturday, engaged in a vitriolic exchange with Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi, who called him a radical chic.

Sala was certainly right about one thing: the belief that it would happen again. And it happened again. Less than 24 hours after Saturday's guerrilla warfare, which caused over half a million euros in damage to Milanese shopkeepers alone. Already yesterday afternoon, fifty teenagers were taken to the police station to be identified before the violence resumed. This deterrent wasn't enough: on Via Torino, other youths threw chairs, tables, and barriers at the windows of Footlocker, which had its shutters down, Champions, and a Carrefour, where they entered and looted. Under Armour next to Cordusio and Levis were also looted , where the youths smashed the window with the handlebars of a scooter. Then came Decathlon and the shops and businesses on Corso Garibaldi .

In all cases, the attacks were quick, followed by rapid escapes, alternating with moments of throwing objects, which the police responded to with tear gas and water cannons. The Galleria was sealed off, and the Duomo was closed to tourists early.

Despite the many young people arrested, the feeling of having been caught unprepared is undeniable. "I don't hold it against the police commissioner, and far from it, with whom I work every single day," Sala said, "but I do have the impression that the situation is being underestimated and that the forces available at the Milan police headquarters were inadequate ." "The usual natural and instinctive reflex of a certain radical chic left that simply can't condemn violent perpetrators without some distinction , always preferring to look at the alleged responsibilities of the state and its representatives," Piantedosi commented.

And while + Europa, with Riccardo Magi, called for the Interior Minister to report to the Chamber, Democratic Party secretary Elly Schlein opened the demonstration on the cost of living and wages, organized by Nicola Fratoianni and Angello Bonelli of AVS. "We have nothing to do with criminals. We have always condemned them," she emphasized, "but they cannot use violent people to drown out the voices of thousands of people who are peacefully protesting across Italy because they can no longer live." "The government," added Five Star Movement leader Giuseppe Conte, "absolutely cannot afford, in the face of protests, even some violent incidents that must be firmly condemned, to deny the root cause—the hardship, the inability for adults, young people, families, and businesses to make ends meet or to have their basic rights guaranteed."

The injured officer and the photo of the Prime Minister

Injured by a large cobblestone thrown at him and at work with a bloody face, Giorgia Meloni posted on social media a photo of Angelo De Simone, the senior officer of the State Police and head of the Garibaldi-Venezia police station in Milan, who returned to guard Piazza Duomo yesterday .

"Uncovered, wounded, without retreating. Before him, those who hide behind a hood to strike and destroy. The State is not an abstract concept. It is made up of people who, with courage and a sense of duty, remain in their place when others choose violence," the prime minister wrote.

The policeman has unwittingly become a symbol of the selflessness of the police during this two-day siege in Milan: he has managed hundreds of high-voltage events, including Pro Pal marches and fan demonstrations. Fifty-five years old, he's always on the ground, even in problematic areas like those around the Central Station and Porta Garibaldi, the heart of the nightlife, where robbers and violent people often find a home.

For him , stopping in the face of a head wound wasn't an option. "We can't afford it," he said in an interview with Tg1. "It's a situation that must be addressed with all available resources because we must guarantee public order and safety in the city."

(Unioneonline)

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