There are those who won’t look the other way. Giacomo Gobbato, or “Jack” as he was known to his friends at the Rivolta community center, was one of them. The stab wound to the chest he received as he tried to defend a woman from an attacker proved fatal. Jack, 26, died soon after he was taken to hospital. The friend who was with him, Sebastiano Bergamaschi, 25, was wounded in the leg but survived.

It all happened on Friday, shortly after 11 p.m., on the very central Corso del Popolo, Mestre's main street. The street was once teeming with life and activity. But nowadays – after Venice Mayor Luigi Brugnaro's “cure” that cut all the city's social services and harm reduction facilities and replaced them with his own idea of “security” consisting of tasers, guns and policemen who look like bar bouncers – Corso del Popolo has become a regional hub of drug dealing and violence. On their way home from a birthday party, Jack and Seba heard a girl screaming and trying to resist a robber who was attempting to steal her backpack.

The two young........

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