Fan violence Italian style

Fan violence is in the news: Artest and the Pacers. Clemson versus South Carolina. I remember high school in the 60s - there was some serious violence, often with an ugly racist element.

We've all heard about soccer violence - up to and including deaths in riots in various otherwise civilized European countries. Tobias Jones in his interesting The Dark Heart of Italy (thanks Aunt Jean) introduced me to the worst example I've heard of. In 2001, some fans of Inter, one of the two Milan powerhouses, (a)stole a motor scooter from a fan of visiting Atalanta, (b)somehow, nobody can or will explain, smuggled it past legions of police into the huge San Siro stadium, (c) set it on fire and (d), chucked it over the rail of the upper deck on to the lower deck which was fortunately empty. By the way, this was at the end of the match, with Inter comfortably ahead 3-0.

Corriere ran a piece on this and other charming incidents this week. In another, fans of Roma's Lazio team unfurled a banner that must have been 30 feet long, in two rows, that said: "Auschwitz is your country and the ovens are your homes."

Even for the Italians, words fail.