(Untitled)

[angualupin]

Ongoing riots in Rome. Apologies for the bad Google translation.

How many times have we seen this played out throughout history? Roma, the Eternal City, run by the elite until the plebs take to the streets. I am twenty-three hundred years off, but all I can think of is the Gracchi, Saturninus, Marius -- these things never change, will never

Comments

[bustedflush]

I'm taking hope from the fact that the last update was more than 30 minutes ago. That's got to mean things are calming down. Doesn't it?

[angualupin]

Or the updaters are dead. We can hope so. The last few updates seemed to be a bit calmer, or at least I thought so once I got past the they barricaded the fucking senate flashbacks to my Roman history lessons.

[bustedflush]

See how bad it's gotten? That made me giggle. And I had the same thought.

It's nice that even Ultra rioters have early curfews.

(The history thing is sort of paralyzing, isn't it? Yet another reason to wonder if we've moved forward at all.)

[angualupin]

I'm sure they all have to go to work tomorrow like good citizens. Rioting and mayhem and civil disobedience is a weekend sport.

I'm currently pissed off that I'm watching FSC's Super Sunday news show and it's taken half way through the episode to even mention what's going on in Italy.

(The history thing is paralyzing. I should not be able to draw parallels to the end of the Roman Republic. It's the twenty-first century, guys. Time to move on.)

[finnygan]

I'm staring at my reader, wondering why none of the news services that I subscribe to are reporting this, at all. I'm hoping that it's because the Italian media are making it sound bigger and badder than it is. They do that. Occasionally.

... Don't they normally report on riots in capital cities?

[angualupin]

YOU WOULD THINK SO.

My parents called and I had to tell them what was going on -- they hadn't heard anything about the riots, and they'd been listening to BBC Radio Cymru all day. Now, admittedly Welsh language radio does not always have the most breaking news (too busy talking about cows), but they're usually pretty decent about giving at least an overview of what's going on on the English language side of the BBC. But nothing. Not a mention.

[finnygan]

It's foolish of me to cling to the belief that the reason why no one but the Italian media is reporting on this is that it's really much smaller and more insignificant than it looks, right?

I think I might still do it for a bit longer, though. I have a feeling I'll sleep better if I do.

[angualupin]

I think I will join you in clinging to that irrational belief. Because like you, I don't think I'll sleep well if I'm thinking about Ultras invading the Stadio Olympico in order to ambush policemen.

[lots42]

Tiles? We have tranq rifles. Drop a few fuckers into drooling comas.

[angualupin]

*grins* The "drop a few tiles down on the mob" was a reference to the Saturninus uprising of 100 BC (Saturninus was finally killed when some hotheads climbed up on the roof of the Curia and stoned him to death using tiles from the roof), but I suppose tranq rifles are the modern equivalent?

[avendya]

...

Wow, the human race is great at moving on and improving, isn't it?

(Beware the ides of - er, November? Wrong Roman time period, I know, but the fall didn't get a catchy slogan. :P )

[avendya]

Also, why is this not on the news? I can't find any English language reporting. SRSLY. Rioting? Generally worth covering.

I hope that means it's not as serious as it sounds.

[pippopippo]

It's the top story on BBC News, actually, and it's got an article at CNN.com as well. I think it's unfortunately very serious; the BBC headline is: Italy fans rampage after killing. :/

[avendya]

Oh, fuck. That's about all I can say.