Milan – They have passed 20 years since that cursed night of March 16, 2023 when Milan found itself catapulted into a climate of years of lead, when it was blood that settled the score between the extreme right and the extreme left. That night of blood so much was poured and one lost his life young militant of the Orso social center of Via Gola, David Caesar26 years old, known by all as “Dax”. A name, that of Dax, which can still be found in the city today: the large murals on the Darsena, but also other graffiti in via Gola and one on Bussa flyover.
Murals by Dax
The Bear social center
Dax’s fate is sealed on the night of March 10, 2003, a week before his death. Davide Cesare is a worker in a company in Vimodrone, father of a 5 year old girl who lives with his mother in Ghedi (Brescia), attends the Orso social center (acronym of Social Resistance Workshop) of via Gola, one of the last remaining in the city after the “normalization” that began in the 2000s with the sound of evictions.
Murals for Dax in via Gola
He cane Rommel
With friends he also meets at Typotahistoric alternative pub in Milan, in a side street of Corso San Gottardo. Right in front of the restaurant, which is located a few steps from the park in via Tabacchi, the evening of March 10 passes a boy who is walking his rottweiler. A group of customers outside the pub hear the young man calling the dog: “Rommel”. A name, clear homage to the German general icon of the Third Reich, which the young people of Tipotà do not miss. The insult starts: “Nazi!”. The quarrel then ends with an assault: the boy is beaten with kicks and punches, ends up in the emergency room. He will tell the police that he was attacked by 10 people.
The bust of Mussolini
The boy with the dog is called Federico Morbi, is 29 years old and runs a leather workshop in the area. He lives with his family, mother Liliana, father Giorgio, 53, and brother Mattia, 17, near Tipotà. The dog, it will later be discovered, is not called that by chance. Federico and Mattia have looks from Nazi too and at home fascist sympathies they are not kept hidden. In searches following Dax’s murder, they will be found symbols of the twentieth century it’s a bust of Mussolini.
Revenge
The attack in front of the Tipotà has no legal consequences, but Federico Morbi and his family they cannot and do not want to forget. Her embers smolder under the ashes and on the night of March 16th here is the spark that makes the fire explode again. The three males of the Morbi family leave the house with the dog, meet Dax with some friends near Tipotà. Insults fly again between the two groups. And at that point Federico Morbi takes out the knife. Which will hit David Caesar with 13 slashes. The friend who was with him, Antonino Alesi, will be stabbed 8 times. While Alesi will get away with wounds to his back and shoulder, one of the stab wounds he received from Dax, in his throat, will be fatal. After the fight the Morbi flee, in the meantime the agents arrive and a large number of people gather on the spot. There situation is explosiveThe agents are besieged and help is struggling to arrive.
Clashes at the hospital
The voltage then shifts toSan Paolo hospital, where Dax was transported and where, however, the corpse already arrived. Outside the hospital come a hundreds of militants from all over Milan. They want to go in, they want to see what happened to their mate. Clashes and scuffles with the police, who have arrived in the meantime, they go on stage on square in front of the Emergency Department. It will take all night to restore order. And only the appeals to the calm of David’s mother in the following days it will avoid the recurrence of clashes and tensions.
The funeral of David Caesar. On the right, Dax’s mother, Rosa Piro
Jail and (lack of) compensation
Members of Morbi family are arrested a few hours after the murder. They say they were attacked and fought back. During the process, with abbreviated rite, Federico Morbi writes a letter of confession and asking for forgiveness. He is sentenced to 16 years and 8 months of prison. Giorgio Morbi, the father, is convicted of the attempted murder of Antonino Alesi, a 3 years and 4 monthswhile Mattia, still a minor, comes entrusted to a community. The judge stares in 350mila euro compensation to Cesare’s family: money, however, that the defendants have not yet paid.
A procession in memory of Dax
The end of the social centers
The Orso community center was definitively cleared out with a maxi blitz by the police inOctober of 2006. Via Gola, today a sort of street art museumwith many works dedicated precisely to the memory of Dax, remains a anomalous case in the Navigli area, now dedicated body and soul to the nightlife of the Milanese. There are still occupied houses and active is another social center (Cuore in Gola) which organizes activities and social dinners in the street. As far as the city’s social centers are concerned, the “golden age” of the 90s is a faded memory: in the city only the Leoncavallo in via Watteau, however a distant relative of the social center known throughout Italy, the Conchettatrue monument of Milanese antagonism, the Crazy house alla Bicocca and the Lambretta in the Central Station area.