Occupy Rome Protests

Living in Rome, Italy during the world-wide protests known as Occupy Wall Street this weekend has brought up some concern about my safety from friends, family and just VASGO followers.  If you haven't heard by now, the city of Rome and the country of Italy received attention world-wide for having the most violent protest out of all the ones that were organized this past Saturday, October 15.  And if you didn't know that, let me take this moment to chide you for not paying better attention to world-wide current events.  Bad Reader!  Bad!  You win trivia night questions when you pay attention to that stuff.

For example, I attended Pub Quiz the other night, a local trivia event at an English Pub and what did I win because I paid attention to current events and knew some answers?  That's right.  A chocolate bar.  Yum.

Source

Now let me take a second to thank you for reading my blog, your number one news source.  Good Reader!  Good!

I'm glad we can be friends again.

For those who are interested, I am doing very well.   I did not participate in the protest.  My apartment was not close to the violence that erupted during the peaceful protest so my belongings are doing well also.  All is fine regarding me.  But not Italy.

Italy and Rome are now forced to bear the shame from of a few bad apples, as we say in America.  I'm here to say, as we also say in America, don't judge a book by its cover.  Regardless of how many cliches I use in this post, the important thing to remember about the whole Occupy Rome event is that a select 200 individuals out of potentially 200,000 people chose to be violent over being peaceful.  Keep in mind I'm getting my numbers from other blogs and news articles.  But if those numbers are correct, that fraction makes it .001 of the whole group.  Better worded, potentially 0.1% of all participants chose to make it a violent demonstration and now the world is going to think Rome is not safe, or has angry, violent people living here.

Don't let your impressions of a wonderful city and wonderful people be ruined from what you hear.  I asked some of my native Roman friends who are in their late twenties what they thought of this situation and they thought it was terrible.  One made it very clear to me, even though his English is almost as broken as my Italian language skills, that the violence was unnecessary.  He referred to the people who caused violence as "idiots".

Although I never approached the protest itself, I had things to do the afternoon of the event and to get there, I had to pass through the area where the protest was to finish.  As the police, media trucks and ambulance trucks all prepared for the worst, I walked through the demonstration's end point, the Palazzo Lateranense in front of the huge church called San Giovanni in Laterano, possibly an hour before chaos ensued.  TV and camera crews stood by waiting for things to happen.  Police chatted to themselves in little circles close to major stoplights.  The five ambulances parked in a row along the street, with their attendants sitting in the vehicles, doors open to have the cool breeze pass through.

This idle activity didn't last for long.

BEFORE.  Media Trucks lined up beyond the balloons.

Notice the huge church on the right side in the photo above?  Here's what happened in front of it a little while later.

AFTER.  Source

How about another view?

BEFORE. Several signs were posted in support of Occupy Rome.

Notice the right side in the above photo.  Pay attention to the walls because this is exactly where the next photo takes place maybe an hour later.

AFTER.  Source

One last view.

BEFORE.  Notice the structure on the right, just behind the large tree.

The tallest, light tan-colored structure in the above photo, located on the right, is called the Tribune.  Though you can't see it well, my Blue Guide book on Rome tells me it was erected in 1743 and contains the mosaic called Triclinium of Leo III.  You'll notice the below photo was taken across from it.

AFTER.  Source

From what I've read, estimates of damage to cars, buildings, atms, statues and more amount to 1 to 2 Million EURO.  Today, that exchange is 1.37 Million Dollars US to 2.75 Million Dollars US.  To an already hurting economic situation here (2nd most debt out of all the European Union), it's a shame to see it getting worse in the course of a single day.

Please, no more violence.  Rome is still beautiful and filled with wonderful people.  Let's try keep it that way.

For more details about the event, I highly suggest reading the following post from a fellow blogger.

http://www.revealedrome.com/2011/10/indignati-rome-october-15-protests.html

POP QUIZ - current events

What European Union country has the most public debt as of Oct. 17, 2011?

A.  Romania

B.  Belgium

C.  Portugal

D.  Greece