Opinion piece – Punamusta Liekki #18/marraskuu 2025
Author: Gaël Rinzler
March 10, 2003. A week before the main events.
Federico Morbi is walking his dog through the streets of Milan. It’s a rottweiler called “Rommel,” like the Nazi general. When he calls his name out loud, he catches the attention of a group of anti-fascist militants in the area.
They exchange a few insults, then get physical.
Morbi reports the beating to the police the next day. His injuries, instead, are expected to heal in five or less.
A week goes by. It’s March 16, 2003. Davide Cesare (Dax, for short) is hanging out at a bar with three of his friends, all members of the same social center.
While going for a smoke, they’re assaulted by Federico Morbi, his father and his younger brother, who believe they have tracked down the perpetrators of the attack. They’re armed with knives and all aim to kill.
The Morbis stab Dax and his friend ten, thirteen times each… while his friend survives the night, Dax doesn’t make it.
He leaves behind his six-year-old daughter, Jessica.
Later that night, not yet informed about his death, tens of leftist comrades gather outside the San Paolo Hospital. They wait for news of their wounded friends.
Although their presence is non-violent, large numbers of policemen and Carabinieri (no less than fifty) are sent to stop them from accessing the building.
When news of Dax’s death comes out, the police start taunting.
A fight breaks out.
The activists will later report broken bones, noses, missing teeth and several stitches, many of which were applied by the hospital staff while they were still handcuffed. Among the illicit weapons used by the police, a steel baseball bat is caught on camera.
The then-police commissioner Boncoraglio argued at the time that the use of force was justified, as Dax’s comrades intended to “snatch the body away”. This claim proved to be unsubstantiated.
Finally, in 2006, a judge described the excessive use of violence from the police as “…a reaction that was ineffective on one hand and excessively harsh on the other (…), culminating in the pursuit inside the emergency room of some young people who had taken refuge there and in indiscriminate violent behavior (baton blows, kicks, and so on) that was not justified either by actual opposition from individuals or by the need to perform an official act, but was purely intimidating and retaliatory in nature.”1
Despite this, two policemen and one Carabiniere were acquitted, while two activists from Dax’s group were sentenced to one year and eight months2. No specific evidence that the crimes were committed has ever been presented to the jury.
So, what’s so interesting about a twenty-two-year-old crime?
In Germany, the United States and Italy, the threat of state violence continues shielding fascist expression.3
All over the world, the judiciary branch is being employed as a tool to protect state interests.
The American Supreme Court’s excessive use of the “shadow docket,” the UK’s outlawing of Palestine Action as a terrorist organization, the Italian government’s obsession with suing dissident voices4… an echo of an echo of an echo.
Dax is the exemplifying symbol of a state that sees leftist values as more threatening than fascist violence… a state that will do anything to protect its illiberal interests.
That’s why Dax’s memory should survive. Dax should become a symbol.
References:
- I Compagni e Le Compagne di Dax (2008, February 15). Processo di Appello Per I Fatti San Paolo. CSA Baraonda, p. 3-5 ↩︎
- (2006, March 31) Dax – Sentenza sui fatti del San Paolo. Reti Invisibili.;
(2008, February 16) Scontri al San Paolo: carabiniere assolto. Il Giornale, editorial. ↩︎ - Richard Connor (2025, March 22). Berlin police arrest scores as neo-Nazi march blocked. Deutsche Welle (DW);
D. Romero, A. Hylton (2025, February 12). After armed neo-Nazis get police protection, some Black residents in Ohio express disbelief. NBC News;
Davide Traglia (2025, April 28). L’Italia continua a essere il Paese in cui chi inneggia al fascismo è protetto, chi all’antifascismo è identificato. VD News. ↩︎ - Alicia Bannon (2025, August 14). Supreme Court Must Explain Why It Keeps Ruling in Trump’s Favor. Brennan Center For Justice;
Dominic Casciani (2025, October 16). Dozens in court over alleged support of Palestine Action. BBC;
P. Oltermann, L. Tondo (2024, May 6). Italian government accused of using defamation law to silence intellectuals, The Guardian ↩︎
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