The survival of [Berlusconi's] rightwing government was greeted by widespread disturbances in Rome where hooded and helmeted protesters set up flaming barricades, attacked police with sticks and bars, smashed the windows of shops and banks, and set alight cars, police vans and local authority vehicles. Police responded with baton charges, teargas and, in some cases reported by witnesses, indiscriminate beatings. []

Opponents of the government, including trade unionists and revolutionary socialists carrying red flags, were joined by students demonstrating against a recently approved university reform bill and people left homeless by the L'Aquila earthquake last year. The marchers filled the broad, long avenue that runs from the Colosseum through Rome's ancient forums. []

In the broad Piazza del Popolo, the scene of some of the most violent clashes, two thick pillars of smoke rose from the remains of a barricade and mingled with teargas fired to disperse the protesters. Student demonstrations were also held in several other cities, including Milan where they briefly occupied the stock exchange.

Despite repeated pleas and tears (I am no courageous protester, I discovered), the police refused to let me go – for seven hours. I could not help but be shocked at my situation and at this police strategy. It was also clear from a number of conversations with officers that many of the frontline did not approve of this strategy either. Several told me they sympathised and blamed their senior officers. This is no survey but they could clearly see that most of us on that side of the square, now in an orderly queue stretching from Westminster Abbey to parliament and waiting to leave, were not causing disorder. []

Nevertheless, people joining an orderly queue can hardly be described as "disorderly". And after standing for over an hour in that queue only to be told they were not to be released a startling number of people did go over to the other side of the square, possibly to join in the vandalism of the Treasury. If so, then the decision not to release people, who were peacefully trying to leave, inflamed the situation, which is the key criticism of this strategy.[]

There remains, however, another key protagonist in protest: the media. On getting home last night I was stunned to see journalists had not told the whole story of the protest that I witnessed. Instead, the focus on the attack on the royals and the Treasury, shocking though they are, have allowed for sensationalist coverage and tough talk. This seems to have left little room for debate about the appropriateness of these tactics, particularly against children.

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