On the streets of Rome, Italy’s capital, up to 200.000 demonstrators took the streets to join the global protest called from one side to other of the world. Among those, a group of Black Bloc protesters – between 100 and 200 people – hijacked the peaceful march with an explosion of violence against stores, banks, cars, police and other protesters.

October 15th was the day of worldwide demonstrations. In 951 cities in more than 80 countries hundreds of thousands of people took the streets and the squares to protest against financial elites, capitalists, bankers and governments’ austerity measures and to claim rights and real democracy for all.

Although the massive participation in most of the cities, reports on violence are rare and the protests were peaceful and quiet even in the European capitals which are the epicenter of the crisis and where the anger and the frustration are stronger.

In this scenario of collaboration and solidarity the exception has been Rome. Here just half an hour after the peaceful march of the Italian “indignados” started – at around 2.30 pm Italian time –, a small group of demonstrators with covered faces and clad totally in black broke away from the main rally and began to throw bottles, stones and incendiary devices at stores, banks, and police.

Numerous cars and trash bins were set on fire in the streets of downtown, offices of the Defence Ministry were assaulted and set on fire as well, banks and stores’ windows were smashed, journalists crew were attacked and many other damages were caused by the group of Black Bloc rioters. Pictures and videos report images of urban guerrilla, terrified people, bloody faces, fire, smoke, destruction and violence. They show the “total black protesters” breaking away from the main group and attacking police and peaceful demonstrators on their way.

The estimated number of injured people is around 70. Two protesters and one policeman have been seriously hurt, one of them – a 52-years-old man who tried to stop the violents – lost two fingers for the explosion of a firecracker thrown by one of the Black Blocs – as it’s shown in one video.

During a high tension moment of clashes between riot police and the violent group, a police armour-plated car was set on fire and police charged repeatedly the protesters and used tear gas and water cannons to stop the riots. The peaceful part of demonstrators, that is the big majority of them, ran away and fled the violence. Some of them who turned against the small violent group trying to stop and push them away were attacked and injured.

Around 12 people have been arrested. Rome’s mayor Gianni Alemanno, ministers and leaders of all parties blamed the violence. Some leader of the opposition questioned on how it was possible that the police was not able to stop such a small and well identifiable violent group for so many hours.

Meanwhile, on the web and on social media some users are rising the question on whether the Black Blocs could be real protesters or infiltrated policemen. Some suggest also that those protesters could have been paid and supported by “men of power”, who have strong interests in a violent hijacking of the peaceful protest to boycott it and manipulate the consequent news for condemning the demonstration. At the moment there is no proof for these conjectures to be true.

What it’s sure is that the news of the violent riots spread easier and stronger than the actual and true mass event which was this global peaceful protest covering it up. Though this has been a serious and blameworthy violence episode, we should also look to the importance and the strength of a worldwide movement that gathered 200.000 people just in Rome who are claiming for a future and protesting against a heavy economical crisis which is not the people’s fault. Also in a country which is standing on bended knees such as Italy, people answered to the call “People of the word: rise up!”.

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Everyone knows by now that Tiger Woods will be absent from the U.S. Open due to leg injuries; however, the question is: do people care? The answer to this question is yes, people do care—especially Americans, about Tiger’s absence from the U.S. Open. The question to ask is: do Americans root for Tiger because they don’t want European golfers to win? In regards to European success, the numbers speak for themselves. As Simon Veness of skysports.com explains in a recent article of his,

“the fact Woods has so dominated the scene for the past 13 years has certainly skewed things in terms of the Uncle Sam quotient. But, take Tiger’s 14 Majors out of the equation in that time…the rest of the world wins 55 percent of the time when Mr Fire Hydrant is not in the field. A sobering thought for the country that stages three of the four.”

Europeans have won 55 percent of the time. This is more than half the time! This is quite dreadful for American golfers, especially since three of the four majors are in the U.S. as aforementioned by Veness. In the article, Veness also points out that out of the last ten U.S. Opens only four Americans have won. With all that said, Even if Americans are not rooting for Tiger because of the facts Veness points out, it is not surprising because Americans love a come back-story.

Despite Tigers noted troubles, as bad as they may be, people still root for him. There is no fact as telling as the recent report by Eben Novy-Williams, of bloomberg.com, that discusses the impact of ticket prices since Tiger’s withdrawal from the U.S. Open on June 7th. In the report Novy-Williams says “ticket prices for golf’s U.S. Open have dropped 20 percent on the resale market”. More specifically, referring to the resale market in the report, Novy-Williams writes, “Four-day tickets to the tournament on EBay Inc. (EBAY)’s Stubhub dropped today to $402 from almost $500 on June 7, when Woods withdrew”. The report, which was written on June 9th (2 days after Tigers announcement) “anticipates prices will continue to drop another 17 percent” before the start of the U.S. Open.

Not only do fans and people in the market that depend on television ratings and ticket sales care about Tiger’s absence, but so do his competitors. Recently, defending U.S. Open champ Graeme McDowell said that he hopes Tiger is able to recover and have a chance to break Jack Nicklaus’s record of 18 major champion-ships won. In an article by Paul Mahoney, a contributor to Golf Magazine, McDowell  says in reference to Tiger,  “I hope for golf’s sake that he’s not finished…I hope this injury is not as bad as it seems and that he comes back and wins more majors and has a chance to beat Jack’s record.” The Golden Bear (Nicklaus’s nickname) shares McDowell’s sentiment saying recently in an article by John Dillion of the website express.co.uk, “Nobody ever wants their records to be broken, that much is obvious. but I certainly don’t want Tiger not to be healthy and not to have the opportunity to play to break those records.”

All in all, if Jack Nicklaus doesn’t want Tiger to finish his career this way, no one should. I think this sentiment is shared by many people, and not just by Americans, but, by many golf fans all across the world. It would be upsetting to see Tiger finish his career due to injury, especially since his talent cannot be doubted for a second. Tigers resume of 14 major speaks for itself. It would be unfortunate to see Tiger go out this way and have to ask the following questions: could he have won four more majors? Could he have won four more majors, which would have tied Jack Nicklaus’s record of 18 major championships won? Would he be considered the best golfer of all time if he tied Jack Nicklaus’s record? These are the questions everyone might be asking in the near future but right now people are wondering the same questions Graeme McDowell is asking, “Is he finished? Is he not finished? It’s an interesting one.”

photogolfer / Shutterstock.com

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