Carlo Giuliani, a 23-year-old Italian activist, poet and anarchist, was killed during the demonstrations against the Group of Eight summit that was held in Genoa from July 19 to July 21, 2001.
He was killed on July 20, during a clash between demonstrators and Italian Carabinieri (military police). The police were in a jeep and were engaged in a conflict with protesters; police were lobbing tear gas while demonstrators were throwing stones. Carlo Giuliani was holding a fire extinguisher and some photos[1] suggest that he intended to throw it at the police jeep.Carlo was told(at gunpoint) to put the extinguisher down, which he began to do and was shot in the face, and the rear wheel of the police jeep then ran over his body twice.
All charges against the police officer who allegedly shot him (Mario Placanica) have been dropped, the commission of inquiry concluding that the fatal bullet that struck Giuliani was deflected by a stone in mid-air. This conclusion was the subject of strong criticism, as was the decision not to charge the driver of the jeep on the basis that Giulani was already dead when ran over; medics tending to Giulani after he was run over testified that his heart was still beating[2]. Had it been concluded that Placanica shot Giuliani in self-defense, a trial would have been necessary, but the conclusion that the bullet was not fired directly at Giuliani removed the need for any trial.
A number of questions about Giuliani's death remain unanswered, particularly after Placanica told the media in 2003 that "I've been used to cover up the responsibility of others." After making this statement, Placanica was involved in a "suspicious" car accident, days after allegedly observing someone tampering with his car[3]. Placanica was also allegedly kept in seclusion following the incident, and his parents were not allowed to visit him in the hospital[4].
The plaza where he was shot, Piazza Alimonda, was unofficially renamed "Piazza Carlo Giuliani" by activists, who erected a memorial there for mementos, photographs, writings and flowers. This memorial has since been burned twice by unknown vandals. Another plaza, in Bern, Switzerland, has also been named "Carlo-Giuliani Platz" in memoriam; the renaming took place during a memorial art exhibition called The Geometries of Memory.
Although countless people, demonstrators included, have been killed and continue to be killed by police around the world, Carlo Giuliani is often held up as a martyr for what is commonly called the Anti-Globalization Movement.
This is a video that accompanied Punk Organisation CONFLICT's single Carlo Giuliani, deciated to his memory and his cause.
