The Authorities

This weekend was hopefully the closest I will ever come to living in a police state. Our Dear Leader (Prez Bush) visited Rome this week and created a huge hullabaloo in the city. First, there were the street closings and ramped up security measures. Then, because of the anti-Bush/anti-war protests and demonstration, thousands of police descended upon the city. I am staying right near the Colessum and thus right in the heart of the main through-fare for presidential sightseeing tours and protest routes.

I came out of the metro station near my apartment to find the street closed and no less than thirty five police cars, buses, armed vehicles scattered about and hundreds of young, excited police officers dressed in riot gear. It was totally surreal especially because the area is already packed to the gills with tourist of every ilk (all of whom blithely ignored the heavily armed police and continued to get their pictures taken with the Roman “gladiators” and go about their touristy business).

I walked up the blockaded street for almost a mile, encountering more police armed to varying degrees (a few with assault rifles, most with billy clubs and pistols). A group of them obliged my picture taking and chatted with me briefly. They told me to be careful since protesters at the beginning of the march had been throwing rocks at the police and there might be some violence. The protest actually was quite peaceful, though I read later that some protesters were dispearsed with tear-gas.

Despite the extra vigilance because of the protests, the police still had time to conduct an immigration/selling of illegal goods raid on the road leading up to the Forum on Sunday. As I took a short cut through the ruins of the Forum, I noticed a group of men running through the tourist throngs with what looked like bed sheets over their shoulders. At first I was confused, but then I saw the Bangladeshi man with whom I had chatted with the other day and I realized that I was witnessing an immigration raid. The men, all Bangladeshi immigrants who sold fake Prada handbags on the street near the Forum, had piled their wares into the sheets that they used to display them and were running from the police. Sure enough, a police car pulled up and a policewoman started chasing the men on foot. I wish I’d had the presence of mind to distract the officer and let the men escape. I am always curious to see how different countries deal with their immigrants. I know that the U.S. is not perfect on these matters--not by a long shot--but we do fairly well compared to most other nations.

For more on immigrants in Rome and the black market, check out this article: http://www.economist.com/world/international/displaystory.cfm?story_id=8450228