University student Morgan Hager made headlines this summer when she was injured and arrested while protesting the G-8 global summit in Genoa, Italy, in July.
Now, she is back in Oregon, and despite the brutal treatment she said she received from police, her mother said it is unlikely she will see any compensation from the Italian government.
Hager, who declined to be interviewed by the Emerald, said in a statement released last month that police wearing riot gear entered the gymnasium where she and other protesters were sleeping and beat them, although they did not resist.
“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 showed on any of them.”
From that beating, Hager said, she suffered blows to the head, a fractured hand and severe bruises.
“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.”
After she was arrested, police shaved off most of her hair and seized her money and plane ticket home, she said.
A judge told her she had been charged with resisting arrest, being part of a criminal organization and possessing weapons, she said.
Hager was then deported to Oregon in the custody of her parents, although she said her lawyer and the judge in Italy did not tell her that she was being deported.
Hager’s mother, Susan, said the family is not pursuing any legal action against the Genoa police because it would be a very difficult and time-consuming process.
“We’ve been contacted by a couple of lawyers,” she said. “But it’s pretty difficult to sue a foreign government.”
A copy of Hager’s statement describing the treatment she received was delivered to the American Embassy in Milan, Italy, which is investigating the incident.
While Hager’s ordeal may be over, her mother said, the larger issues surrounding her arrest are not.
“In many ways, it isn’t over,” she said. “Certainly, I’m delighted to have her home … But I think all of our eyes are more open to the presence of this kind of treatment throughout the world.”
Morgan Hager had planned to spend fall term studying art in Italy. Now she is planning to take fall term off before returning to the University, her mother said.