Report on Morgan Hager, University of Oregon student at Genoa (fwd)

Another eyewitness account of police brutality in Genoa.  Why were the
police unleashed?  Because the ruling class was stunned that thousands of
peaceful protesters have lawfully exercised their human rights, as
guaranteed in the U.N. charter, and decisively stated that for a global
order to be legitimate, it must be democratic.  The present capitalist
global order is undemocratic, is ruled by the rich and for the rich, at
the expense of the world's workers.  Undoubtedly the order was given, and
Berlusconi implemented it:  show these demonstrators to be violent,
characterise them as criminals, bent on unlawful actions against the
legitimate guardians of civilization.

csc

----- Original Message -----
Ben and dti-discuss list,

I have a good friend who was in Genoa for the protests and knows Morgan
well.  She sent me this statement
from Italy and asked that I post it far and wide so here goes.  I
believe she is in need of some kind of
financial assistance.  Oh, and it says in her statement that she is
back in Oregon now.

Andy Burns

***************************************

STATEMENT OF MORGAN KATHERINE HAGER
STATE OF OREGON, County of Multinomah

I, MORGAN KATHERINE HAGER, being first duly sworn, do depose and say as
follows:
The following is a summary of what I recall about the incidents of the
morning of Sunday, July 22nd and the
events that followed. Even though I was injured and afraid at the time,
my memories are clear (although
some minor details may be inaccurate). This statement focuses on what I
directly experienced or saw. When I
refer to events I didn't directly experience or see, I have so
indicated.

Sherman Sparks and I, together with our friend Angeline, traveled to
Genoa and participated in the peaceful
protest marches there. We at no time engaged in any violence against
persons or property. The G8 ended on
Saturday, July 21st, and about 9 or 10 p.m. on Saturday night, Sherman
and I went back to the school in
Genoa where we had slept the night before. We were looking for
Angeline. Angeline was not there, so I
checked my e-mail and sent an e-mail to my parents, telling them that
everything was fine, the protests had
ended, we were safe, and we were going to leave Genoa first thing the
next morning. We considered joining
Angeline, who was sleeping at another location (one of many camps in
and around Genoa), but by this time we
were too tired to find another place to sleep. Anyway, we thought the
school would be the safest place to
sleep. The camps didn't seem to be safe because we had been told the
police had visited them on a number of
occasions and the encounters were not pleasant, although not violent.
Also, the school was across the
street from the Indy Media Center that housed the media, took care of
the injured, etc., so we perceived
that the closeness gave the school some protection.

Sherman and I lay down in our sleeping bags on the first floor at about
11:00 p.m. We fell asleep. I can't
remember if Sherman woke me, or if I woke because of all the noise.
Regardless, I woke to crashing and
yelling outside. There was chaos everywhere. People were running around
trying to collect their belongings.
There was a great deal of noise: The police were breaking down the
doors and smashing the windows. I later
heard that someone had barricaded the doors after the trouble started
out in the street and at the media
center. I quickly began collecting my belongings, but I didn't manage
to get my shoes on or collect my
belongings before the police entered the room.

Sherman and I were sleeping behind a wall so we did not have a view of
the main entrance to the school.
Across the room, the people sleeping there had a direct view of the
entry. The first thing I noticed was
that the people across the room, which was the largest group of people
in the room (there were many more
scattered throughout the room), were getting down on their knees and
putting their hands up in signs of
peace or non-resistance/surrender. All of those across the room, about
15 in total, were doing that.
Sherman and I immediately did the same thing.

The police rushed into the room. They were dressed in dark clothing,
and may have had protective vests,
etc. under their clothing because they looked exceedingly bulky. They
wore helmets with plastic face covers
(riot helmets, I think). They wore heavy boots, gloves, and carried
batons (clubs). I am certain no skin
was showing on any of them. I later learned that these police were part
of an anti-terrorist force called
the DIGOS. I know the Italian press has reported that 20 policemen were
hospitalized after the raid on the
school, but that is difficult to believe based on what I saw and
experienced.

The first thing I recall the police doing was kicking a chair into the
group of people kneeling on the
floor. I could hear things smashing this whole time. A few police (5 or
7 or so) ran into the room. One
came over to our corner and, as I was kneeling with my hands extended,
he kicked me in the side of the
head, knocking me to the floor. Sherman and another man who had been
sleeping near us helped me back up to
my knees. Another policeman came to where I was kneeling and started
beating me with his club. I was up
against the wall, and I curled over with my right side against the wall
and my hands and arms covering my
head for protection. I tried not to move because I thought he would
stop beating me sooner if I lay still.
I am not sure how many policemen were beating me. I looked up and saw
Sherman being beaten. After they
stopped beating us, Sherman and I lay curled up by the wall for about
five minutes or so. I think at this
point the police were bringing people down from the upper two floors.

I noticed that there was a lot of blood around us, and that blood was
smeared on the wall. I think it was
our blood because we were both bleeding from the head, and I was
bleeding from my hands and wrists.  About
5 minutes later, the police ordered everyone in the room to go over
against the opposite wall. As I was
walking across the room to do so, the policeman who told us to move
struck me in the butt with his club. We
all curled up against the opposite wall. At this point I noticed that
my bleeding right hand was swollen,
and my little finger was sticking out at a strange angle. Sherman's
eyes looked glazed and he wasn't
responding to questions normally.

We sat against the wall as more people were herded into the room and
basically piled up with us against the
wall. All had been beaten, and some had to be carried down the stairs
by others who had also been beaten. I
was shaking and couldn't stop. We stayed against the wall for 5 or 10
minutes more until paramedics in
orange suits started arriving. (I was told later that they were
volunteers-not working for the government).
By the time the paramedics started arriving, the original policemen who
had done the beatings were gone and
the room was full of different police wearing the Carabinieri uniforms
(basically riot police).
Every once in a while, the police would take a few people out of the
room, making them walk with their
hands above their heads and shouting at them and pushing them out. The
paramedics began laying the most
severely injured out on sleeping rolls and covering them with sleeping
bags. Eventually, they got
stretchers into the room. All the paramedics did was pass around some
rags with disinfectant because they
were not equipped to deal with the number and severity of the injuries.
I smelled human excrement and blood in the room as I lay against the
wall. The man to our left had a
severely broken arm and I could see the bone ends pushing up on his
skin. It was enormously swollen and he
was in extreme pain. The people to our right: one man was bleeding from
the head and wavering in and out of
consciousness. A girl curled onto the floor and was shaking.

The paramedics told us that everyone who didn't need to go to the
hospital was to move to one side.
Initially I didn't want to go to the hospital, so Sherman and I moved
to that side of the room. The
paramedic stopped us and told us we needed to go to the hospital.

People were being carried out on stretchers and, about 30 minutes
later, we walked out behind the stretcher
of the man with the broken arm. Outside the courtyard of the school,
there were very large numbers of
police, and they were lining up as if to create barriers. I saw some
media people and saw flashes from
cameras, etc. I covered my face. People were in the windows of the
media center and behind the lined up
police, and they were yelling "assassini." (assassins).

We walked about a block through more police to an ambulance. I could
not see where we were going because
the windows of the ambulance were opaque. When we got out of the
ambulance at San Martino Hospital, I was
put in a wheelchair and Sherman was put on a stretcher. Our passports
were immediately taken away.
At some point, I was put onto a stretcher bed and pushed into a room
where I took my shirt off and they
disinfected the wounds on my back, head, and hands. They pulled off as
many of my bracelets as would come
off. This was extremely painful because both of my hands were so
swollen. They took my pants and gave me a
hospital gown. They pushed my bed back out into the hallway, which was
lined on each side with people on
beds and Carabinieri. I lay there for an hour or two (time is hard to
measure) before being taken for x-
rays.

During the time I lay there, I talked to several others in the hall. I
got up and went over to Sherman, but
I was told to return to my bed.  Sherman got up to go to the bathroom,
and they took his bed away so he had
to lay down on a metal bench.

I had about seven x-rays: both hands, head, chest, ribs, legs, and back
(as best I recall). The person who
did the x-rays spoke no English; he would just grab me and push me to
get into position. It hurt a great
deal. When he was x-raying my hands, he wanted them flat on a screen
and he tried to force them flat. I
cried out in pain.  Neither hand would go flat because of the injuries.
Finally, his assistant stopped him
and said "roto" (which means broken). After the x-rays, they pushed me
back into the hallway.

They told me one bone in my hand had two fractures and that my ribs
were also fractured. (After my parents
arrived in Italy, I saw another doctor, had new x-rays, and was
referred to an orthopedist: three different
bones in my right hand are fractured). Both hands and my left forearm
were terribly swollen. I was in pain
during this time.

At this point, I really started noticing the police (they were the
Carabinieri, which are paramilitary riot
police). I went to sleep and woke up to see three policemen standing
there staring at me from across the
hall. I was told that police in the hallways were slapping their clubs
into the palms of their hands as
threats to those in the beds as they roamed up and down the halls, and
also that they were tapping the beds
with their clubs.

After another long while, I was taken to have a cast put on my hand and
was then returned to the hallway. I
was semi-delirious at this point and drifting in and out of sleep.

The American consul came to see me while I was in the hallway. I don't
remember the conversation very well.
He asked if I wanted my parents informed and I remember saying that I
didn't until I knew where I was going
to be put. He gave me his card, which I put in my wallet. I woke up
being pushed on a stretcher down a
hallway into emptier parts of the hospital. It frightened me because I
didn't know where I was going. I
asked the orderly in Italian several times where we were going and he
ignored me. I remember being afraid
that I was being taken somewhere to be beaten again. They put me into a
room at about 6 a.m. I slept, but
kept waking up and realizing that I was in different places. I remember
that they took blood. They then put
me in a room with a Canadian girl from the school and I slept until
about 10 a.m. My clothes had been
sitting on a table in the room, and when I woke up everything was gone
from my pockets except my wallet,
which had been emptied of everything except the money and my
identification. They also took the card the
American consul had given me. At all times, our room was guarded by
Carabinieri, who prevented us from
moving around or looking out of the window; eventually ordered us to
sit on our beds. Basically, the
hospital had been turned into a prison.

The Canadian girl and I were taken to get a CT scan. We were then fed.
I was not offered pain medication.
We were told to dress, and then escorted from the hospital room and
handcuffed together. In the hallway, we
were turned over to detention center officers. When I shifted around in
the handcuffs to try to get them
off the cuts on my wrist that was not in a cast, the detention officers
tightened the handcuffs. They
grabbed us by the handcuffs and pulled us to the transport van. When we
arrived at the detention center,
they pulled us out of the van by the handcuffs. As we were being led
through the lobby of the detention
center, an officer came up and grabbed me by the back of the head. He
pushed and held my head downward and
yelled something in Italian.

We were never told we were under arrest and never told that we had any
rights.
We were put into a detention cell (a square room with a stone floor and
no furnishings at all) with about 7
or 8 others from the school, both male and female. We were all very
afraid that we were going to be beaten
again. Eventually they came and took the males away and brought in
about 20-25 females, all of whom had
come from the school.

During this time, they came and took people out one by one for
fingerprinting and processing. They told me
to sign some papers when I was being fingerprinted, but I refused. The
papers were in Italian.

Some girls who had been in there since the night before had not yet
been given water or food. About four
hours later, we were each given a ham sandwich and water. At about
midnight, they gave us 4 or 5 blankets
for all of us (we numbered about 31 by then). The windows of the cell
were covered by bars and screens
only, and the wind was blowing. It was very cold in the cell, and we
were trying to sleep on stone floors
with our various injuries.

During the whole time, we were repeatedly told differing stories about
what was going to happen to us.
Sometimes they said we'd be free the next day; sometimes they said we'd
be in jail for at least a week;
sometimes they said they were going to start taking each of us out
individually for "interviews" to see if
we would go free; sometimes they said they were going to take us to a
different jail that night to sleep
and shower.

In the middle of the night, they started taking people out of the cell
one by one again. I don't believe
anyone was brought back. My turn came around daylight. I was taken into
a room where they took my belt by
cutting my belt loops. (They had returned my clothes at some point
before this). They told me to take out
my earrings, so I took out the ones that I could given the fact that my
hands were too injured to do much.
They made me take my clothes off and stand in front of a man who then
asked me if I did drugs or had any
health problems. I was taken to another room where they again demanded
I take out the rest of my earrings
(the ones that remained were thick metal that I could not bend to take
out), and all I could tell them was
that I could not and gesture at my cast. A guy came in with a knife and
gestured that he would just cut
them out. Eventually, the two guards bent the earrings enough to take
them off and threw them in the
garbage. Then they used scissors to cut my hair off (they left a ragged
inch or so all over my head). They
then put me into a different cell that already contained some of the
girls who had been called out in the
middle of the night from the first cell.

About noon, I think, they gave us ham and cheese sandwiches and some
fruit. Then I was taken out of the
cell again and put in a cell by myself. I didn't know why. One of the
guards said that maybe I would go
free (which, of course, turned out not to be true). While in the cell
by myself, I was visited by the
American consul's assistant. She told me that my parents had called.
She said there were lawyers who were
looking into our cases. After I met with her, I was taken to another
van and was then joined by about 20
girls who had been in the cell with me. We were transported to Voghera
Prison.

We were all put into another holding cell and called out one by one to
go to our cell assignments. I was
one of the last to be called, but I had drifted in and out of sleep so
I am not sure how long this process
took. I am sure it was at least four hours. I was put into a cell with
three other females from Spain,
Canada, and England.

At this point, differentiating the days is very difficult. Basically, I
spent one night in the detention
center, two full nights in Voghera Prison, and was transported from
Voghera to Pavia Prison at about
midnight on the third night.

At Voghera, I was fed regularly, had access to a bathroom, and was
taken to the yard twice a day for about
45 minutes. I slept on a cot and was given a blanket. I was again
visited by the American consul on the
second day at Voghera and at this visit I waived my rights under the
Italian privacy act so the consul
could discuss my situation in detail with my parents.

The first night at Voghera, the Italian prisoners were released.

During one of the recesses in the yard, a priest came to us with
information about charges being made
against us, and a list of weapons the Italian police claimed were found
in the school. The weapons listed
that I remember were things like Swiss army knives, wallet chains,
helmets, sticks (I know there were
sticks there that had been taken from banners), and metal poles (the
Canadian girl I was with said she saw
police cutting open backpacks and taking poles out of the frames). They
also said they found two Molotov
cocktails.

On the third day, I had a preliminary hearing at the prison. This is
the first time I saw my lawyer, and
was allowed a two minute session alone with him only after I asked for
it. I answered questions from the
judge and made a statement to the judge about what had happened to me
at the school, the detention center,
and in prison. I was formally told the charges against me, which the
judge said were resisting arrest,
being part of a criminal organization, causing bodily harm to the
police, and possession of weapons. I
understood that according to Italian law, after the first appearance
before a judge, I was entitled to a
phone call, which I didn't get. I was taken back to my cell.

Later, we were brought down one by one to hear the verdicts in our
cases. I was told that I was free to go
and would be released in one to two hours. There was no mention of
deportation. We waited for many hours in
our cell for the anticipated release. Finally, they took us downstairs
where they gave us bags with what
was left of what was on our persons when we were taken to the hospital.
They had us sign a paper saying
everything was there. My Italian money that had been in my wallet was
gone, and they explained that it had
been taken to pay for anything I wanted to purchase in the prison. (I
purchased nothing).  They said they
would keep an accounting and mail the remainder back to me. (My friend
Angeline recovered my backpack,
boots, sketchbook and coat from the school after the police had
finished searching; however, all of my
other belongings, including $200 in American money, $300 in travelers
checks, and my return airline ticket,
were missing).

We were put into another holding cell and then taken one by one to a
police van and driven to Pavia Prison.
On this ride, the police talked loudly in praising terms of Mussolini
and Pinochet. They took us into Pavia
Prison and put us into a small room where eventually the German consul
came and informed the German
citizens of their deportation.  Nobody ever told me I was deported. I
didn't know what was going on at this
point, but we stayed in Pavia for 5-7 hours. One by one, we were again
photographed and fingerprinted and
told to sign a deportation order. Eventually we were reunited with the
males who had been incarcerated at
Pavia Prison. We all waited in a room until we were taken to another
police van. We were taken to a small
airport in Milan (no USA flights) and left there by the police. I heard
a rumor that we had 24 hours to
leave the country, but was never told that directly.  The deportation
papers actually said (as translated
by the American consul) that we had been taken to the border and were
to leave the country immediately from
there. This was not true, but we would not have been able to prove to
the police, if we had been stopped,
that we were left at an airport in Milan with no money, not at the
border. None of us had any money, and
some had no passports. Two volunteers from a human rights group offered
to take us to a safe house to sleep
and to try to make arrangements to leave the country. We went to the
safe house for the night. Sherman and
I were reunited with our parents at the American Consulate the
following day.

Sherman and I both saw a private physician and specialists the next
day. I suffered extreme bruising on the
left side of my body (the right side was not bruised because it was
pushed into the wall) and on my back
and buttocks. My arms and hands were very severely bruised because I
had covered my head with them. Three
bones in my right hand were fractured. I flew home with my parents on
July 28th.

Although I am grateful for the large amount of media attention the
beatings have received in Italy and the
rest of Europe, because I am sure the attention hastened our release, I
also realize that the focus has
been drawn away from the overarching issues and reasons for our
presence in Genoa in the first place. I
sincerely regret this.

__________________________________
Morgan Katherine Hager

SUBSCRIBED AND SWORN to before me this 30th day of July, 2001.




* * *  Ben Manski * * *
Progressive Dane   http://www.newparty.org/pd/
Campus Greens     http://www.campusgreenparties.org
Green Party               http://www.greens.org/
Center for Campus Organizing    http://www.cco.org/
180/Movement for Democracy and Education
  http://corporations.org/democracy


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Ben and dti-discuss list,<BR><BR>I have a good friend who was in Genoa for
the protests and knows Morgan <BR>well.&nbsp; She sent me this
statement&nbsp; <BR>from Italy and asked that I post it far and wide so here
goes.&nbsp; I <BR>believe she is in need of some kind of <BR>financial
assistance.&nbsp; Oh, and it says in here statement that she is <BR>back in
Oregon now.<BR><BR>Andy
Burns<BR><BR>***************************************<BR><BR>STATEMENT OF
MORGAN KATHERINE HAGER <BR>STATE OF OREGON, County of Multinomah<BR><BR>I,
MORGAN KATHERINE HAGER, being first duly sworn, do depose and say as
<BR>follows: <BR>The following is a summary of what I recall about the
incidents of the <BR>morning of Sunday, July 22nd and the <BR>events that
followed. Even though I was injured and afraid at the time, <BR>my memories
are clear (although <BR>some minor details may be inaccurate). This
statement focuses on what I <BR>directly experienced or saw. When I
<BR>refer to events I didn't !
directly experience or see, I have so <BR>indicated. <BR><BR>Sherman Sparks
and I, together with our friend Angeline, traveled to <BR>Genoa and
participated in the peaceful <BR>protest marches there. We at no time
engaged in any violence against <BR>persons or property. The G8 ended on
<BR>Saturday, July 21st, and about 9 or 10 p.m. on Saturday night, Sherman
<BR>and I went back to the school in <BR>Genoa where we had slept the night
before. We were looking for <BR>Angeline. Angeline was not there, so I
<BR>checked my e-mail and sent an e-mail to my parents, telling them that
<BR>everything was fine, the protests had <BR>ended, we were safe, and we
were going to leave Genoa first thing the <BR>next morning. We considered
joining <BR>Angeline, who was sleeping at another location (one of many
camps in <BR>and around Genoa), but by this time we <BR>were too tired to
find another place to sleep. Anyway, we thought the <BR>school would be the
safest place to <BR>sleep. The camps!
 didn't seem to be safe because we had been told the <BR>police had visited
them on a number of <BR>occasions and the encounters were not pleasant,
although not violent. <BR>Also, the school was across the <BR>street from
the Indy Media Center that housed the media, took care of <BR>the injured,
etc., so we perceived <BR>that the closeness gave the school some
protection. <BR><BR>Sherman and I lay down in our sleeping bags on the first
floor at about <BR>11:00 p.m. We fell asleep. I can't <BR>remember if
Sherman woke me, or if I woke because of all the noise. <BR>Regardless, I
woke to crashing and <BR>yelling outside. There was chaos everywhere. People
were running around <BR>trying to collect their belongings. <BR>There was a
great deal of noise: The police were breaking down the <BR>doors and
smashing the windows. I later <BR>heard that someone had barricaded the
doors after the trouble started <BR>out in the street and at the media
<BR>center. I quickly began collecting m!
y belongings, but I didn't manage <BR>to get my shoes on or collect my
<BR>belongings before the police entered the room. <BR><BR>Sherman and I
were sleeping behind a wall so we did not have a view of <BR>the main
entrance to the school. <BR>Across the room, the people sleeping there had a
direct view of the <BR>entry. The first thing I noticed was <BR>that the
people across the room, which was the largest group of people <BR>in the
room (there were many more <BR>scattered throughout the room), were getting
down on their knees and <BR>putting their hands up in signs of <BR>peace or
non-resistance/surrender. All of those across the room, about <BR>15 in
total, were doing that. <BR>Sherman and I immediately did the same thing.
<BR><BR>The police rushed into the room. They were dressed in dark clothing,
<BR>and may have had protective vests, <BR>etc. under their clothing because
they looked exceedingly bulky. They <BR>wore helmets with plastic face
covers <BR>(riot helmets, I t!
hink). They wore heavy boots, gloves, and carried <BR>batons (clubs). I am
certain no skin <BR>was showing on any of them. I later learned that these
police were part <BR>of an anti-terrorist force called <BR>the DIGOS. I know
the Italian press has reported that 20 policemen were <BR>hospitalized after
the raid on the <BR>school, but that is difficult to believe based on what I
saw and <BR>experienced. <BR><BR>The first thing I recall the police doing
was kicking a chair into the <BR>group of people kneeling on the <BR>floor.
I could hear things smashing this whole time. A few police (5 or <BR>7 or
so) ran into the room. One <BR>came over to our corner and, as I was
kneeling with my hands extended, <BR>he kicked me in the side of the
<BR>head, knocking me to the floor. Sherman and another man who had been
<BR>sleeping near us helped me back up to <BR>my knees. Another policeman
came to where I was kneeling and started <BR>beating me with his club. I was
up <BR>against the wa!
ll, and I curled over with my right side against the wall <BR>and my hands
and arms covering my <BR>head for protection. I tried not to move because I
thought he would <BR>stop beating me sooner if I lay still. <BR>I am not
sure how many policemen were beating me. I looked up and saw <BR>Sherman
being beaten. After they <BR>stopped beating us, Sherman and I lay curled up
by the wall for about <BR>five minutes or so. I think at this <BR>point the
police were bringing people down from the upper two floors. <BR><BR>I
noticed that there was a lot of blood around us, and that blood was
<BR>smeared on the wall. I think it was <BR>our blood because we were both
bleeding from the head, and I was <BR>bleeding from my hands and
wrists.&nbsp; About <BR>5 minutes later, the police ordered everyone in the
room to go over <BR>against the opposite wall. As I was <BR>walking across
the room to do so, the policeman who told us to move <BR>struck me in the
butt with his club. We <BR>all curle!
d up against the opposite wall. At this point I noticed that <BR>my bleeding
right hand was swollen, <BR>and my little finger was sticking out at a
strange angle. Sherman's <BR>eyes looked glazed and he wasn't <BR>responding
to questions normally. <BR><BR>We sat against the wall as more people were
herded into the room and <BR>basically piled up with us against the
<BR>wall. All had been beaten, and some had to be carried down the stairs
<BR>by others who had also been beaten. I <BR>was shaking and couldn't stop.
We stayed against the wall for 5 or 10 <BR>minutes more until paramedics in
<BR>orange suits started arriving. (I was told later that they were
<BR>volunteers-not working for the government). <BR>By the time the
paramedics started arriving, the original policemen who <BR>had done the
beatings were gone and <BR>the room was full of different police wearing the
Carabinieri uniforms <BR>(basically riot police). <BR>Every once in a while,
the police would take a few peo!
ple out of the <BR>room, making them walk with their <BR>hands above their
heads and shouting at them and pushing them out. The <BR>paramedics began
laying the most <BR>severely injured out on sleeping rolls and covering them
with sleeping <BR>bags. Eventually, they got <BR>stretchers into the room.
All the paramedics did was pass around some <BR>rags with disinfectant
because they <BR>were not equipped to deal with the number and severity of
the injuries. <BR>I smelled human excrement and blood in the room as I lay
against the <BR>wall. The man to our left had a <BR>severely broken arm and
I could see the bone ends pushing up on his <BR>skin. It was enormously
swollen and he <BR>was in extreme pain. The people to our right: one man was
bleeding from <BR>the head and wavering in and out of <BR>consciousness. A
girl curled onto the floor and was shaking. <BR><BR>The paramedics told us
that everyone who didn't need to go to the <BR>hospital was to move to one
side. <BR>Initial!
ly I didn't want to go to the hospital, so Sherman and I moved <BR>to that
side of the room. The <BR>paramedic stopped us and told us we needed to go
to the hospital. <BR><BR>People were being carried out on stretchers and,
about 30 minutes <BR>later, we walked out behind the stretcher <BR>of the
man with the broken arm. Outside the courtyard of the school, <BR>there were
very large numbers of <BR>police, and they were lining up as if to create
barriers. I saw some <BR>media people and saw flashes from <BR>cameras, etc.
I covered my face. People were in the windows of the <BR>media center and
behind the lined up <BR>police, and they were yelling "assassini."
(assassins). <BR><BR>We walked about a block through more police to an
ambulance. I could <BR>not see where we were going because <BR>the windows
of the ambulance were opaque. When we got out of the <BR>ambulance at San
Martino Hospital, I was <BR>put in a wheelchair and Sherman was put on a
stretcher. Our passports <BR>!
were immediately taken away. <BR>At some point, I was put onto a stretcher
bed and pushed into a room <BR>where I took my shirt off and they
<BR>disinfected the wounds on my back, head, and hands. They pulled off as
<BR>many of my bracelets as would come <BR>off. This was extremely painful
because both of my hands were so <BR>swollen. They took my pants and gave me
a <BR>hospital gown. They pushed my bed back out into the hallway, which was
<BR>lined on each side with people on <BR>beds and Carabinieri. I lay there
for an hour or two (time is hard to <BR>measure) before being taken for
x-<BR>rays. <BR><BR>During the time I lay there, I talked to several others
in the hall. I <BR>got up and went over to Sherman, but <BR>I was told to
return to my bed.&nbsp; Sherman got up to go to the bathroom, <BR>and they
took his bed away so he had <BR>to lay down on a metal bench. <BR><BR>I had
about seven x-rays: both hands, head, chest, ribs, legs, and back <BR>(as
best I recall). The p!
erson who <BR>did the x-rays spoke no English; he would just grab me and
push me to <BR>get into position. It hurt a great <BR>deal. When he was
x-raying my hands, he wanted them flat on a screen <BR>and he tried to force
them flat. I <BR>cried out in pain.&nbsp; Neither hand would go flat because
of the injuries. <BR>Finally, his assistant stopped him <BR>and said "roto"
(which means broken). After the x-rays, they pushed me <BR>back into the
hallway. <BR><BR>They told me one bone in my hand had two fractures and that
my ribs <BR>were also fractured. (After my parents <BR>arrived in Italy, I
saw another doctor, had new x-rays, and was <BR>referred to an orthopedist:
three different <BR>bones in my right hand are fractured). Both hands and my
left forearm <BR>were terribly swollen. I was in pain <BR>during this time.
<BR><BR>At this point, I really started noticing the police (they were the
<BR>Carabinieri, which are paramilitary riot <BR>police). I went to sleep
and woke up!
 to see three policemen standing <BR>there staring at me from across the
<BR>hall. I was told that police in the hallways were slapping their clubs
<BR>into the palms of their hands as <BR>threats to those in the beds as
they roamed up and down the halls, and <BR>also that they were tapping the
beds <BR>with their clubs. <BR><BR>After another long while, I was taken to
have a cast put on my hand and <BR>was then returned to the hallway. I
<BR>was semi-delirious at this point and drifting in and out of sleep.
<BR><BR>The American consul came to see me while I was in the hallway. I
don't <BR>remember the conversation very well. <BR>He asked if I wanted my
parents informed and I remember saying that I <BR>didn't until I knew where
I was going <BR>to be put. He gave me his card, which I put in my wallet. I
woke up <BR>being pushed on a stretcher down a <BR>hallway into emptier
parts of the hospital. It frightened me because I <BR>didn't know where I
was going. I <BR>asked the or!
derly in Italian several times where we were going and he <BR>ignored me. I
remember being afraid <BR>that I was being taken somewhere to be beaten
again. They put me into a <BR>room at about 6 a.m. I slept, but <BR>kept
waking up and realizing that I was in different places. I remember <BR>that
they took blood. They then put <BR>me in a room with a Canadian girl from
the school and I slept until <BR>about 10 a.m. My clothes had been
<BR>sitting on a table in the room, and when I woke up everything was gone
<BR>from my pockets except my wallet, <BR>which had been emptied of
everything except the money and my <BR>identification. They also took the
card the <BR>American consul had given me. At all times, our room was
guarded by <BR>Carabinieri, who prevented us from <BR>moving around or
looking out of the window; eventually ordered us to <BR>sit on our beds.
Basically, the <BR>hospital had been turned into a prison. <BR><BR>The
Canadian girl and I were taken to get a CT scan. !
We were then fed. <BR>I was not offered pain medication. <BR>We were told to
dress, and then escorted from the hospital room and <BR>handcuffed together.
In the hallway, we <BR>were turned over to detention center officers. When I
shifted around in <BR>the handcuffs to try to get them <BR>off the cuts on
my wrist that was not in a cast, the detention officers <BR>tightened the
handcuffs. They <BR>grabbed us by the handcuffs and pulled us to the
transport van. When we <BR>arrived at the detention center, <BR>they pulled
us out of the van by the handcuffs. As we were being led <BR>through the
lobby of the detention <BR>center, an officer came up and grabbed me by the
back of the head. He <BR>pushed and held my head downward and <BR>yelled
something in Italian. <BR><BR>We were never told we were under arrest and
never told that we had any <BR>rights. <BR>We were put into a detention cell
(a square room with a stone floor and <BR>no furnishings at all) with about
7 <BR>or 8 othe!
rs from the school, both male and female. We were all very <BR>afraid that
we were going to be beaten <BR>again. Eventually they came and took the
males away and brought in <BR>about 20-25 females, all of whom had <BR>come
from the school. <BR><BR>During this time, they came and took people out one
by one for <BR>fingerprinting and processing. They told me <BR>to sign some
papers when I was being fingerprinted, but I refused. The <BR>papers were in
Italian. <BR><BR>Some girls who had been in there since the night before had
not yet <BR>been given water or food. About four <BR>hours later, we were
each given a ham sandwich and water. At about <BR>midnight, they gave us 4
or 5 blankets <BR>for all of us (we numbered about 31 by then). The windows
of the cell <BR>were covered by bars and screens <BR>only, and the wind was
blowing. It was very cold in the cell, and we <BR>were trying to sleep on
stone floors <BR>with our various injuries. <BR><BR>During the whole time,
we were r!
epeatedly told differing stories about <BR>what was going to happen to us.
<BR>Sometimes they said we'd be free the next day; sometimes they said we'd
<BR>be in jail for at least a week; <BR>sometimes they said they were going
to start taking each of us out <BR>individually for "interviews" to see if
<BR>we would go free; sometimes they said they were going to take us to a
<BR>different jail that night to sleep <BR>and shower. <BR><BR>In the middle
of the night, they started taking people out of the cell <BR>one by one
again. I don't believe <BR>anyone was brought back. My turn came around
daylight. I was taken into <BR>a room where they took my belt by <BR>cutting
my belt loops. (They had returned my clothes at some point <BR>before this).
They told me to take out <BR>my earrings, so I took out the ones that I
could given the fact that my <BR>hands were too injured to do much. <BR>They
made me take my clothes off and stand in front of a man who then <BR>asked
me if I did dr!
ugs or had any <BR>health problems. I was taken to another room where they
again demanded <BR>I take out the rest of my earrings <BR>(the ones that
remained were thick metal that I could not bend to take <BR>out), and all I
could tell them was <BR>that I could not and gesture at my cast. A guy came
in with a knife and <BR>gestured that he would just cut <BR>them out.
Eventually, the two guards bent the earrings enough to take <BR>them off and
threw them in the <BR>garbage. Then they used scissors to cut my hair off
(they left a ragged <BR>inch or so all over my head). They <BR>then put me
into a different cell that already contained some of the <BR>girls who had
been called out in the <BR>middle of the night from the first cell.
<BR><BR>About noon, I think, they gave us ham and cheese sandwiches and some
<BR>fruit. Then I was taken out of the <BR>cell again and put in a cell by
myself. I didn't know why. One of the <BR>guards said that maybe I would go
<BR>free (which, of co!
urse, turned out not to be true). While in the cell <BR>by myself, I was
visited by the <BR>American consul's assistant. She told me that my parents
had called. <BR>She said there were lawyers who were <BR>looking into our
cases. After I met with her, I was taken to another <BR>van and was then
joined by about 20 <BR>girls who had been in the cell with me. We were
transported to Voghera <BR>Prison. <BR><BR>We were all put into another
holding cell and called out one by one to <BR>go to our cell assignments. I
was <BR>one of the last to be called, but I had drifted in and out of sleep
so <BR>I am not sure how long this process <BR>took. I am sure it was at
least four hours. I was put into a cell with <BR>three other females from
Spain, <BR>Canada, and England. <BR><BR>At this point, differentiating the
days is very difficult. Basically, I <BR>spent one night in the detention
<BR>center, two full nights in Voghera Prison, and was transported from
<BR>Voghera to Pavia Prison at!
 about <BR>midnight on the third night. <BR><BR>At Voghera, I was fed
regularly, had access to a bathroom, and was <BR>taken to the yard twice a
day for about <BR>45 minutes. I slept on a cot and was given a blanket. I
was again <BR>visited by the American consul on the <BR>second day at
Voghera and at this visit I waived my rights under the <BR>Italian privacy
act so the consul <BR>could discuss my situation in detail with my parents.
<BR><BR>The first night at Voghera, the Italian prisoners were released.
<BR><BR>During one of the recesses in the yard, a priest came to us with
<BR>information about charges being made <BR>against us, and a list of
weapons the Italian police claimed were found <BR>in the school. The weapons
listed <BR>that I remember were things like Swiss army knives, wallet
chains, <BR>helmets, sticks (I know there were <BR>sticks there that had
been taken from banners), and metal poles (the <BR>Canadian girl I was with
said she saw <BR>police cutting open!
 backpacks and taking poles out of the frames). They <BR>also said they
found two Molotov <BR>cocktails. <BR><BR>On the third day, I had a
preliminary hearing at the prison. This is <BR>the first time I saw my
lawyer, and <BR>was allowed a two minute session alone with him only after I
asked for <BR>it. I answered questions from the <BR>judge and made a
statement to the judge about what had happened to me <BR>at the school, the
detention center, <BR>and in prison. I was formally told the charges against
me, which the <BR>judge said were resisting arrest, <BR>being part of a
criminal organization, causing bodily harm to the <BR>police, and possession
of weapons. I <BR>understood that according to Italian law, after the first
appearance <BR>before a judge, I was entitled to a <BR>phone call, which I
didn't get. I was taken back to my cell. <BR><BR>Later, we were brought down
one by one to hear the verdicts in our <BR>cases. I was told that I was free
to go <BR>and would be rel!
eased in one to two hours. There was no mention of <BR>deportation. We
waited for many hours in <BR>our cell for the anticipated release. Finally,
they took us downstairs <BR>where they gave us bags with what <BR>was left
of what was on our persons when we were taken to the hospital. <BR>They had
us sign a paper saying <BR>everything was there. My Italian money that had
been in my wallet was <BR>gone, and they explained that it had <BR>been
taken to pay for anything I wanted to purchase in the prison. (I
<BR>purchased nothing).&nbsp; They said they <BR>would keep an accounting
and mail the remainder back to me. (My friend <BR>Angeline recovered my
backpack, <BR>boots, sketchbook and coat from the school after the police
had <BR>finished searching; however, all of my <BR>other belongings,
including $200 in American money, $300 in travelers <BR>checks, and my
return airline ticket, <BR>were missing). <BR><BR>We were put into another
holding cell and then taken one by one to a !
<BR>police van and driven to Pavia Prison. <BR>On this ride, the police
talked loudly in praising terms of Mussolini <BR>and Pinochet. They took us
into Pavia <BR>Prison and put us into a small room where eventually the
German consul <BR>came and informed the German <BR>citizens of their
deportation.&nbsp; Nobody ever told me I was deported. I <BR>didn't know
what was going on at this <BR>point, but we stayed in Pavia for 5-7 hours.
One by one, we were again <BR>photographed and fingerprinted and <BR>told to
sign a deportation order. Eventually we were reunited with the <BR>males who
had been incarcerated at <BR>Pavia Prison. We all waited in a room until we
were taken to another <BR>police van. We were taken to a small <BR>airport
in Milan (no USA flights) and left there by the police. I heard <BR>a rumor
that we had 24 hours to <BR>leave the country, but was never told that
directly.&nbsp; The deportation <BR>papers actually said (as translated
<BR>by the American consul) !
that we had been taken to the border and were <BR>to leave the country
immediately from <BR>there. This was not true, but we would not have been
able to prove to <BR>the police, if we had been stopped, <BR>that we were
left at an airport in Milan with no money, not at the <BR>border. None of us
had any money, and <BR>some had no passports. Two volunteers from a human
rights group offered <BR>to take us to a safe house to sleep <BR>and to try
to make arrangements to leave the country. We went to the <BR>safe house for
the night. Sherman and <BR>I were reunited with our parents at the American
Consulate the <BR>following day. <BR><BR>Sherman and I both saw a private
physician and specialists the next <BR>day. I suffered extreme bruising on
the <BR>left side of my body (the right side was not bruised because it was
<BR>pushed into the wall) and on my back <BR>and buttocks. My arms and hands
were very severely bruised because I <BR>had covered my head with them.
Three <BR>bones !
in my right hand were fractured. I flew home with my parents on <BR>July
28th. <BR><BR>Although I am grateful for the large amount of media attention
the <BR>beatings have received in Italy and the <BR>rest of Europe, because
I am sure the attention hastened our release, I <BR>also realize that the
focus has <BR>been drawn away from the overarching issues and reasons for
our <BR>presence in Genoa in the first place. I <BR>sincerely regret this.
<BR><BR>__________________________________ <BR>Morgan Katherine Hager
<BR><BR>SUBSCRIBED AND SWORN to before me this 30th day of July,
2001.<BR>&nbsp; <BR><BR><BR><BR>* * *  Ben Manski * * *<br>Progressive Dane
http://www.newparty.org/pd/<br>Campus Greens
http://www.campusgreenparties.org<br>Green Party
http://www.greens.org/<br>Center for Campus Organizing
http://www.cco.org/<br>180/Movement for Democracy and Education<br>
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