PREVIEW

A surreal atmosphere gripped the downtown area, with roughly 2,000 police and military personnel patrolling the streets as high-end fashion boutiques boarded up their windows with wooden panels to prevent vandalism. Numerous minors were stopped and searched during security sweeps in the city center. The massive security operation was deployed to avert a repeat of last weekend, when central Milan was turned into a 48 hour theater of riots and looting.