Thousands of people are expected to turn out for a demonstration in Pisa on Saturday to call for thesignation of the local police commissioner following theclashes between riot police and demonstrators at apro-Palestinian protest last Friday that left five protestersincluding two minors needing emergency medical treatment andprompted a rare rebuke from President Sergio Mattarella, theorganisers said on Friday.
Student collectives and antagonist groups submitted formal notification of the event to police headquarters along with an indication of the planned route starting from Piazza VittorioEmanuele at 2 pm across the city center to Piazza dei Cavalieri, the scene of police baton-charges last week.
Images of some police in Pisa repeatedly hitting students over the head shocked many Italians amid reports of clashes between police and demonstrators at other pro-Palestinian protests in other cities on the same day.
Mattarella subsequently said that "truncheons fail young people" and Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi echoed his words by saying that clashes between police and minors at demonstrations are always a failure, while also warning against conducting summary trials of officers.
Some 19 officers are reportedly being investigated in an internal police probe into the policing in Pisa.
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