Morgan Hager, the University student injured and arrested during the G-8 global summit in Genoa, Italy, last month, released a statement alleging that police clad in riot gear stormed the gymnasium where she and other protesters slept, beating them despite their nonresistance.
In the statement, which has been delivered to the American Embassy in Milan, Italy, as part of its investigation of the incident, Hager said she suffered a fractured hand, blows to the head and severe bruises.
Hager declined to be interviewed by the Emerald.
She said in her statement, however, that she and other anti-globalization protesters were sleeping in the gymnasium when Genoa police raided the building and arrested the protesters inside.
“The police rushed into the room. They were dressed in dark clothing and may have had protective vests under their clothing because they looked exceedingly bulky,” she said. “They wore helmets with plastic face covers. They wore heavy boots, gloves and carried batons. I am certain no skin was showing on any of them.”
Hager said the police began beating the protesters despite their attempts to overcome the language barrier by showing the two-finger peace sign.
“The first thing I recall the police doing was kicking a chair into the group of people kneeling on the floor,” she said. “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.”
She said that, amid numerous trips to the hospital and different prisons and cells, the police took her money and plane ticket home and shaved off most of her hair.
She said a judge informed her she had been charged with resisting arrest, being part of a criminal organization, causing bodily harm to the police and possession of weapons. Hager was deported back to Oregon in the custody of her parents, although she said police, her lawyer in Italy and the judge never mentioned deportation.
Hager said her deportation papers said she and the other arrested protesters had been dropped at the border and told to leave the country immediately, but police actually released them at an airport in Milan with no flights going to the United States and without any money. Some people, she added, had their passports taken away during their jail time also.
A group that helped organize the protest came to the airport and found houses for them to stay at until they could arrange to leave the country.
Hager had planned to spend fall term in Italy studying art, which is her major at the University. She had gone to Italy early to join the protest against the eight industrialized nations that met in Genoa late last month.