The violent deaths of six African immigrants brutally shot 130 times on Sept. 18 ignited a rebellion in the Italian town of Castelvolturno. The police responded to the racist hate crime by claiming that the men were drug dealers killed by the mafia.
Outraged and fed-up with widespread anti-immigrant sentiment in the country, immigrants took to the streets and battled police on Sept. 19, demanding justice and an end to racism.
In response to the drug accusations, one protester told La Repubblica newspaper: “It’s a big lie. They were breaking their backs working in fields and building sites. Or they worked in the tailoring shop from morning to night, without raising their heads from the workbench.”
The Italian government is deploying 500 troops to the area to “control the violence.” Earlier this year, 3,000 troops were dispatched to supposedly clean up street gang violence. In reality it was just an excuse to intimidate and harass immigrants.
