The most important thing at the beginning: For this book, it is worthwhile to learn Italian! I have frequently pointed out that "La Reppubblica" one of the few print media, is the face the phenomenon of "urban violence in the football environment," largely judgmental and objective and are as enjoyable from widespread dull monotony of "evil anarchists - good police" stand out (or vice versa). Core of the troupe's joyful recherche journalist Carlo Bonini, who presents with "ACAB" now a reference work on the subject. The title, 70s-Song of the 4-Skins and now hymn and trademarks of ultras, hooligans and left and right activists is hard, but the issue of appropriate and may not yet believe to anyone tempted to here would be someone luck in simple finger-pointing . Because there are innocents in Bonini no easy answers, certainly not.

The first two chapters (a kind of prologue, which is in the logic of the narrative to the epilogue) show the stress fields between which move the hyper-realistic-written story is: The first chapter tells of a brutal assault of a majority of Napoli Ultras on a Fiat with Laziali on the highway. Life is ultimately saved the Lazio fans - irony of history - by a random police patrol passing by. The second chapter consists of a sales-wise comparison between the official handbook for the use of baton use with a cool list of violations of G8 opponents. I think I do not need to be noted that there had not described the injuries of protesters close to standard real truncheon may be used.

And here begins the story of the three protagonists of "ACAB", Rome's former deputy police chief Fournier and the two forces of the mobile police ("celerini") "Drago" and "Lo Sciatto". Using detailed research (and obviously excellent sources in both camps) is the coincidence of the 7th Roman unit (hereinafter only the "VII") described, a handpicked group of 70 was able to put the best mobile police forces, Rome. What are these "best" define, in the course of the book should be abundantly clear. Barracks, trained military deliberately pumped full of testosterone, with martial fighting unit equipped (a special T-shaped metal baton from the martial arts liable "to shatter to ox bone" to make) and austere right attitude is the Seventh in the center of the attacks while on demonstrators of resistance against the G8 summit in Genoa in 2001 are, as they in a " macelleria messicana "a "clean" school of distinctly violent resisters . The events are the center of a media storm against police violence and the subsequent court cases, and also provide the core recurrent episode or "original sin" of Boninis book.

Fournier will be in real life the only one who opposes the esprit de corps of the police forces and confirmed in his statement of the illegality, naked violence and bloodlust of VII in the Diaz school and his own "comrades" in the process brings into trouble. That this behavior is taken from those not as positive without saying, of itself, and Bonini leaves in a stunning document a Chat excerpt from the internal message boards of the mobile task forces to speak of the Interior. Bonini reportiert here a rare glimpse into the mindset of the men behind the mask and sign a document of fascist attitude, team spirit, aggression, suburban origins and lack of awareness of wrongdoing. Individual voices reminder for that one is subjected in his choice of means in this "civil war" rule of law are totgebrüllt of the majority of the pack with regard to same-Civil War states: Glory! Camaraderie! Loyalty!

Seven years later, the three main characters find out "ACAB" right in the eye of the tornado again, all of them put (the VII was to Genoa resolved as quickly as they were specifically recruited for the summit), entrusted with new tasks (football stadiums, deportation illegal immigrants, lifeguard ...), set partly in court: is in November 2007 at the shot Autobahnraststätte "Badia al Pino" in Arezzo the Lazio Ultras Gabriele Sandri , and what precisely should be even securing a simple football match in Rome's Olympic Stadium against Cagliari, threatens for real this time, to escalate to civil war. Gewaltepisodien from football stadiums are found throughout the entire book, "Lo Sciatto" is accused of an Ultra falsely excessive force and can in court - leave from superiors - just under his neck from the noose drawn (with the help of his communist lawyer, there are Bonini no ideological fixed points). In parallel, the cooperation of the heads of the Roma and Lazio groups in attacks against illegal barracks after being raped by the Romanians are Giovanna Reggiani described. The stresses along the fault lines of modern Italian society are vibrant and noticeable on the road they are discharged. It is therefore a new level of violence in the house and involved "Celerini" are experienced enough to realize what they expected - suddenly deep black ultras as fascist police forces are opposite and the illegal alien, nor the lowest common denominator "padroni della nostra terra "(" Lords of the Earth ") is in the aftermath of the death Sandris a battle, an outburst of hatred. And a battle in which nobody is really clear on which side he stands for and what he is really fighting for - or what the "pages" are actually still.

Bonini describes meticulously the events in Rome, as on that November evening, police barracks in Rome burned, and complaining on both sides of dozens of serious injuries were, he describes by means of telephone recordings to contact the otherwise Ewings warring Ultrà-groups, the rising desire for "action", fixing the tactical and highly accurate koordnierte action against the hastily pulled together and defeated numerically helpless police forces, which are thrown into the fire for problems that yield their political superiors to the solution to then just as quickly to distance himself from them. Come to use nail guns, swords, stones, tear gas, Molotov Kocktails and paper bombs, when the pent-up anger on both sides who feel left equally between state and press, discharges against each other in an unprecedented orgy of violence. From the rumbling in the distance "assassini Assassini" and through the night hurrying hooded figures up to the explosion of the destruction of delusion in flaming barracks told Bonini, the events of that night documentary, seemingly out of eye-witness perspective - a literary view of the shaky hand-held camera.

In the wake of these events still follows a digression on the participation of the most violent Ultrà groupings to the occupation of waste dumps around Naples. Also here is again breathtaking scene Bonini knowledgeable and prepares the individual compounds of Napoletane core groups and their locations in the "San Paolo" and their areas of influence in the city of Naples, including connections to the heads of organized crime. And so are our protagonists audited botenen of the mafia fighting troops of the BISL ("Basta Infame solo Lame" - "No more traitors, just knives") and NISS ("Niente Incontri solo Scontri" - "No coincidence, only disputes") end up in a very real, as well as symbolically charged meeting back over. While the use of description merely promised protests of angry residents, organized our "Gliellista" (after the tear gas grenade launcher GL-40 of the Italian mobile application commands) his gun up to his ankles in the toxic waste standing in Italy against the dregs of ultras who at an intersection a bus overturned and have set fire to secure the funding sources of the local Camorra. "What is this violence and where they come from?" ask not only the participants but also the readers.

Who in the face of clear title, now expects a book that the "celerini" ultras condemned and romanticized, is disappointed. Bonini abstain from any championship, he denounces injustice and violence, a fight in the street barely comprehensible but seemingly civilized Italy. He puts his finger in the wound and is writing a book of hate documentaries that takes place in the bowels of the country and is played on the streets. An abysmal hatred against the political caste, discharged from the losers in the social upheavals Berlusconians Italy, which - contrary will find themselves in a fight without rules on different sides of the law - actually grew up in the same circumstances, in the same parts of the city. A hatred of the media, against injustice, against the arrogance of illegal immigrants, the lack of respect and appreciation for one's own position. Both have in common misunderstanding about the preparation of the Sunday Civil War in the media. Equally clear is the feeling of having been the "celerini" left in the lurch by political leaders who sent them into this war. "Who will cover your ass because if something goes wrong? ? Up there about the "At least here Bonini has written a long awaited and absolutely necessary book. "Osservatorio sulla Repression" decides their review by saying that I would like to join:

"Ci sono tra cui scegliere mali, a cui votarsi nessun santo, ma qualche diavolo minore. Qualcuno Potra accusare Bonini Tues aver contratto una "sindrome di Stoccolma" verso i celerini. Chi pensa che "tutti i poliziotti siano Bastardi" non legga questo libro, ma il mai neppure chiami 113th "

There are several to choose evil, no sacred authority, which one could turn to, at most some minor devil. One could accuse Bonini, to have been prejudiced by the "Stockholm Syndrome" to the forces. Anyone who believes that "all cops bastards" are not required to read this book, but not the 113 call. "

A gripping, true book, a journalist and a good book infinitely sad book. There is no innocent, but an equally disturbing and enlightening insight into what every damn Sunday zuträgt in the country where the lemons bloom. Bonini wrote a documentation of the pure hatred - a hatred for the non-responsible, to deliver him - and the archaic values ​​of camaraderie, honor and loyalty, as twisted and perverted and always ask about the perceived as corrupt and unjust law and cling desperately to it. A law that removed every Sunday with more of their real life. A book that is a reality that is saturated with violence and frustration, of anger in a world that has lost its ground rules, a book that takes the author aside and from an outside position just normal people names, marital problems and Biography considered a suburb, which has flushed the life in one way or the other side of the front line and the - certainly the wrong means - looking for answers to a question that is not theirs.

Carlo Bonini - ACAB. All cops are bastards
196 p., 16,50 € - Edizioni Einaudi 2009 (Big style libero)
ISBN 978-88-06-19469-7