For a brief moment I thought that the death this week in Bologna of a Moroccan, face-down on the tarmac, after being restrained by not just one but two police officers sitting on top of him, might provoke a similar explosion of outrage as the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

The next night there was a riot in Bologna during which the rioters brandished placards claiming that the death of Abderrahim Fakir, 42, was an ‘omicidio di stato’ (state murder), chanted ‘assassini’ at the police and attacked them. The police retaliated with tear gas and water cannons as the rioters torched cars and smashed shop windows. Sixty-four police officers were injured. It is still early days but this was nevertheless small beer compared to the massive wave of urban destruction unleashed by the death of Floyd in America.

It is still early days but this was nevertheless small beer compared to the massive wave of urban destruction unleashed by the death of Floyd in America

It is still early days but this was nevertheless small beer compared to the massive wave of urban destruction unleashed by the death of Floyd in America

That nothing much has happened in Italy must mean, I feel, that the forces of woke are no longer as powerful as they were in 2020. Or else that this is Italy and not America and thus such forces here do not command the same clout.

The death of this Moroccan at about midday on Sunday happened in an already highly charged atmosphere in Italy regarding the issue of law and order. Just two days earlier the 72-year-old owner of a jewellery shop near Genoa, Mario Roggero, began a 14-year jail sentence for murder. He had shot dead two robbers outside his shop in 2021 who had handcuffed his wife inside the shop and were making their getaway with the booty.

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Italian law, as in virtually every country in Europe plus most of America, is reasonably clear on this in theory at least: while you can use proportionate force in self-defence against an intruder inside your property, shooting dead an........

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