See other Resistance Articles
Title: Rioters rampage through Greek cities
Source:
MYWAY News
URL Source: http://apnews.myway.com/article/20081207/D94U2D480.html
Published: Dec 8, 2008
Author: ELENA BECATOROS
Post Date: 2008-12-08 01:31:15 by noone222
Keywords: None
Views: 187
Comments: 12
ATHENS, Greece (AP) - The fatal police shooting of a teenager has set off Greece's worst rioting in years, with hooded youths rampaging through Athens and the northern city of Thessaloniki over the weekend. Gangs smashed stores, torched cars and erected burning barricades in the streets of the Greek capital and the country's second largest city in a dramatic eruption of a long-tolerated self-styled anarchist movement. Rioting began in several cities within hours of the death of a 15-year-old who was shot Saturday night in Exarchia, a downtown Athens district of bars, music clubs and restaurants that is seen as the anarchists' home base. Soon dozens of stores, banks and cars were ablaze. Police said 24 policemen were injured, and one remained in hospital on Sunday morning. The violence was the most severe since rioting in 1999 during a visit to Greece of then U.S. President Bill Clinton. The last time a teenager was killed in a police shooting - during a demonstration in 1985 - it sparked weeks of frequent rioting. The circumstances surrounding Saturday's shooting were unclear, and Interior Minister Prokopis Pavlopoulos has promised a thorough investigation and the punishment of anyone found responsible. "It is inconceivable for there not to be punishment when a person loses their life, particularly when it is a child," he said. "The taking of life is something that is not excusable in a democracy." Police said the two officers involved claimed they were attacked by a group of youths, and that three gunshots and a stun grenade were fired in response. The two officers have been suspended, arrested and charged, one with premeditated manslaughter and the illegal use of a weapon, and the other as an accomplice. They are to appear before a court Wednesday. The Exarchia precinct police chief has been suspended. A blurry video shot by a bystander from a nearby balcony that purportedly shows the incident has been shown on local television and posted on the Internet. Two sounds that could be gunshots can be heard, but the image is too blurry and distant to show the sequence of events clearly. Pavlopoulos and Deputy Interior Minister Panagiotis Chinofotis submitted their resignations after Saturday's rioting, but they were not accepted by the prime minister. The violence died down Sunday morning, only to begin again as afternoon demonstrations in Athens and Thessaloniki to protest the boy's death degenerated into running battles between Molotov cocktail-throwing youths and riot police firing tear gas. In Thessaloniki, protesters attacked City Hall, two police precincts, several shops and a bank, as well Greek television channel vehicles. Dozens of stores in central Athens went up in flames or saw their storefronts smashed. At least two buildings were destroyed by fire, as was a Ford car dealership. Streets were littered with jagged chunks of paving stones and rocks thrown at riot police, as well as shattered glass from storefronts and banks. "I understand the anger (for the teenager's death) and the right to demonstrate it," Pavlopoulos said Sunday night. "What is inconceivable is the raw violence that undermines social peace and turns against the property of innocent people." As darkness fell, groups of youths, some masked and others wearing motorcycle helmets, used trash cans and overturned cars to erect burning barricades in the streets around the Athens Polytechnic. Clouds of tear gas hung in the air, sending passers-by rushing for cover. Other curious onlookers peeped out from street corners, using mobile phones to snap pictures. Local media reported several people sought treatment for breathing problems, but no serious injuries were reported. Greece has seen frequent and sometimes violent demonstrations in recent months against the increasingly unpopular conservative government of Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis and his economic reforms. Karamanlis has also seen his popularity plummet due to a land scandal that has put the opposition Socialists consistently ahead in opinion polls. Violence often breaks out during demonstrations in Greece between riot police and anarchists, who also attack banks, high-end shops, diplomatic vehicles and foreign car dealerships in late-night fire-bombings that rarely cause injuries. The self-styled anarchist movement partly has its roots in the resistance to the military dictatorship that ruled Greece from 1967-74. The youths often take refuge inside university buildings or campuses, from which police are barred under Greek law. The youths, who often march in demonstrations under the red and black anarchist banner, espouse general anti-capitalist and antiestablishment principles, and have long-running animosity toward the police as well as the media. Full details of how much damage was caused in the two days of rioting were not immediately available. ---_ Poster Comment: Go to the webpage for pictures of Banks burning and a Ford Dealership torched. Doesn't look like the Greeks are taking Romans 13 very seriously.
Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest
Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 9.
#1. To: All (#0)
There !
All they need to do is immigrate to the US. They will have a job endorsing H-S Precision. I hear they like murderers to endorse their products. Lon Horiuchi can give them some lessons on how to shoot women in the back of the head and get away with it. Here's hoping these Greek kids kill some cops. Fingers crossed...
Future kids everywhere will have to kill some cops.
Let that shit hole (Greece) burn down to the ground. MAYBE after that they will wake up and kill ALL the politicians and public servants there and get a country and not a banana place with attitude as it is now. As for Ricky ......... even if a youth group attacks you ( very common in greece to throw stones to the police at demonstrations) you do not respond with bullets. Tear gas, flash granades and water tanks are the answer (all this stuff is beeing used there for decades). Anyway......... hope the do more damage to the public organ. Only thing i do not agree is the damage of private property from working people and their businesses. Banks..... burn them all and stop when they stop milking the working class.
#10. To: LostBody (#9)
people should know you're greek so you know of which you speak. good to see you again.
Perfect synopsis and solution. Burn all of the banks to the ground ... and multi-national corporations. Edit: Screw Ricky !
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest
#2. To: noone222 (#1)
The two officers have been suspended, arrested and charged, one with premeditated manslaughter
#3. To: PSUSA (#2)
Here's hoping these Greek kids kill some cops. Fingers crossed
#9. To: noone222 (#3)
Replies to Comment # 9.
#12. To: LostBody (#9)
(Edited)
End Trace Mode for Comment # 9.