After the gig at the Free Music Festival in Nichelino, on June 29th, we went to the hotel, together with the crew and the rappers Anti L’Onesto and Dj Noko, who had played last and are travelling with us. We got to the hotel at 2AM and were met by some militars in uniform (carabinieri) with rather unfriendly ways. We also were told that there were about 70-100 of them in the hotel, presumably on their way to Susa Valley [a valley in northern Italy where big protests have been trying for years to prevent the construction of a highly destructive high-speed train line, and where the police has only a few days ago evacuated the protesters' camp to let the building begin. During the brief clash the policemen used massive quantities of CS tear gas, which is considered a "chemical weapon". Translator's note]

Some of us met in one of the guitarists's room to talk about the gig and say goodnight. After an hour almost everyone has gone to sleep, and in the room there's only the guitarist, the bass palyer, and the soundman.

At about 3:30 AM, without any pre-advice neither from the hotel direction nor from the nearby rooms, the guys hear a violent knocking on the door and immediatly start having breathing difficulties which rapidly grow harder. They soon realize that someone is pumping tear gas from under the door. They also hear mocking and defying voices, and thus decide not to get out, fearing physical aggressions. They shut themeselves on the bathroom and wrap their heads in wet towels. Try to imagine three guys in a room saturated with gas pumped from the outside with an indefinite but large number of militars yelling at them that this was a vengeance for the - allegedly - loud tone of their conversation.

People outside start noticing something, among them Anti who finds its way blocked by plain clothes militars, armed with batons, who intimate him to "mind his own fucking business", beat him up and push him in his bathroom. Next is the manager of the band, who immediatly realizes the gravity of the situation and calls an ambulance and the local carabinieri.

It is only once the militars realize they are dealing with people who might attract some media attention that they suddenly change their ways and try to minimize the facts. Some officers try to offer new rooms, and then even a new hotel. We refuse and leave town heading home. We decided to let this be public not only because we find it is shameful and something people must be outraged at, but also because we fear that things might have gone in a different way if we hadn't rapidly made clear we had a lot of immediate and influential external connections (agency, press office, lawyer).

For a long half an hour we felt the same way too many people must have felt when they ended up, whithout any possibility of defense, in the hands of policemen abusing their power for reasons that have nothing to do with public order.

Punkreas & crew