Occupy Italy: Police raid homes after riots

by Hanna Ingber Win October 17, 2011 Global Post

Italian police conducted raids, including house searches, Monday against
suspected leftist extremists following a weekend that saw some of the
worst violence to hit Rome in years.

Interior Ministry Undersecretary Alfredo Mantovano told local media that
police targeted far-left suspects in an ongoing operation in cities across
the country, the Associated Press reports.

Police reportedly raided homes and youth centers in Florence, Palermo and
Ancona.

The riots began Saturday when Italians took to the streets to join the
global campaign against corporate greed and economic inequality inspired
by the Occupy Wall Street protests in New York. Protests took place in
cities across the world Saturday.

The protests turned violent Saturday when several hundred protesters
started setting cars on fire, breaking store windows, smashing bank ATMs
and store windows and torching police vehicles in Rome. Italian police
responded by firing teargas and using water cannons to break up
demonstrators.

On Thursday, protesters stormed into Goldman Sachs' Milan office. They
were quickly dispersed but left behind graffiti denouncing Italy's Prime
Minister Silvio Berlusconi and saying "Give us money."