The Greek Events, A Chronology Stathis Stassinos

I don't know how familiar you are with the situation in Greece. Im writing one armed, cause I broke my elbow in the Sunday protest. Im not a fighter of course, I just stumbled after a chemical attack from the riot police. So excuse me if I leave questions unanswered , I will try to do so, in the following days.

day 1 Saturday 6/12. In a very popular corner in the center of athens with bars and youth drinking beers, a police car passes by. It stops, policemen gaze a little and some youths throw plastic water bottles and a reported asstray. The police car drives away. After some time the policemen come back on foot, having warned a riot squad sitting around the corner. They exchange insults with the youths, in a typical Greek machismo, where the car, the chick, and one's mama are sacred taboos. The first policeman draws a gun and fires 3 shots. One of them hit the hart of a 15year old. The policemen walk away. The boy is transfered to a hospital and proclaimed dead. Youths from around athens hearing the news, gather spontaneously in the center with real anger. Police takes a passive stance, trying to avoid conflict. Minister of Interior affairs (and political head of the police) appears apologetic to the public, stating that the policemen will face the justice. Small riots break out in the first hours of Sunday.

day 2 Sunday 7/12. A fazed government , starts to act but unexpectedly in a very opposite way than a good communicator would have. The main media strategist of the government resigned in bitterness a month ago, facing big scandals around real estate. Prime Minister declares his condolences to the family but in a very dehumanizing way, talking is if the boy was a thing (in greek we have a separate gender for objects). Greek media copycat the press releases of the police, talking about a riot before the shooting, claiming that the policeman has shot in the air, etc. That reaction angers more the people of athens, who by noon they gather spontaneously for a march towards the police headquarters. The march starts, around 200 we call them riotists (mostly youths with a vice of breaking things, without any real theoritical background) start to break shop windows. That was an excellent excuse for riot police to intervene , suffocating us wiith huge quantities of CN gas. The aim was clear. The march wouldnt reach police headquarters at any cost, but without close contact between marchers and riot police. In the evening we learn the first info about the boy. He was from a well off family living in the good suburbs of athens and going to a richkid private school. Then the Minister of education proclaims business as usual, the schools will be open monday. that was a huge tactical mistake from the government. Sarkozy line maybe was successful when dealing with brownies second class citizens, but Alexis wasnt one of them. It was one of the kids of the establishment. The first blowback is heard when one of the 3 layers defending the killer resigns stating of the record that the killer was showing no remorse and that he had a son about the same age. But they dont stop. Conservative voices are starting to talk about the broken properties, about law and order. The Media comply. But even the president of the small shop owners association declares that you cant talk about broken glasses, when a boy is killed.

day 3 Monday 8/12 That day was huge. thousands over thousands of high school students gather at their schools and with SMS text messages deploy a strategical and tactical triumph. Schools start at 8.30, by 9 o clock thousands of students from all around athens are on the streets marching. The city is learning about them by the traffic police trying to figure out where are they heading. Many of them pay a visit to their local police station throwing stones and oranges. Riot police is overwhelmed by so many calls around athens. Police stations are left undefended as policemen lock themselves inside. The students after the viit to the local stations head for the headquarters of police. Athens is coming to a halt. Every road, one by one is closed by youths. Riot police doesnt attack the students near the police headquarters. Dehumanizing Alexis, the sarkozy line is dead on arrival. Copycat moves are spreading all over greece. No big city has its police station unbroken. Police cars are moved to army baracks in order to be protected from the crowd. Prime minister starts to talk about his dear friend dead alexis, trying to undo the damage. Of course no-one believes him. The political class is trying to control the situation asking people to show reserve. The media play along. Poeple use the internet as the only non controlled alternative. By evening a huge crowd of students and people is gathered in the center. The Media are trying to play it down. Riot police starts firing CN gas at the crowd trying to disperse it. The excuse was kids throwing cristmass balls to them. Rioters start by breaking banks, the center is full of them. Most of the people disperse , rioters continue to set ablaze with firebombs anything resembling a financial institution or a government building. Police is busy dispersing the peacefull demonstrators, because by prime time, Athens must be on fire. Rumors go around about rioters breaking in, in a gun store. of course it was a replica gun store . A riotoer is shown by TV carring a medieval shield. Surreal scenes continue. TV is trying to instill fear, that a riot is coming after your car. In reality by monday most rioters are focused on financial institutions. The big christmass tree in constitution square is set ablaze. TV transmits images of inferno. Rumors go around that the country will be set at a state of alarm. Prime minister announces a visit to the president, early next morning and to the leaders of all parties , at noon.

day 4 Tuesday 9/12 Parties. New Democracy . Conservative party and government. Law and order is the motto of the day. A few rioters wont break us. PASOK, socialdemocrats. They are all absent. Only their leader Papandreou calls for peacefull demonstrations trying to please everybody. "We are against the killer, we are against the rioters, as ifthose things were ever equal". Most consider him as a person with a distant relationship with social reality. He didnt do anything to deflect this opinion . SYRIZA. Coalition of left reformists and smaller revolutionary groups (trotskysts, maoists etc). This is the only party that supports the stundents from the beginning. While not supporting broken banks, SYRIZA tryies to deflect the whole issue from the broken glasses to the issues of the youth. Quite mild for my taste, but then again they are a stain in the consensus. KKE, greek communist stalinist party with a great tradition of opting out and sabotaging popular protests not controlled by them (they even sabotaged the mythed protest of Polytechnic's school in 1973 during the dictatorship). Well that was a surprise even by their own standards. KKE declared that the protests are controlled by people with hideous motives (off the record talking about jihadists etc), calling for no more protests not centered around them . LAOS, mild fascist , far-right spin-off from new democracy. They set the tone about law and order. And all of them were trying to vilify SYRIZA for supporting the protests, stating that they support the hooded rioters. But today is the funeral of the 15year old boy. Again thousands of stundents make a pass from the local police station, trying to break what was left unbroken. Most of them are gathering around the parliament. Many of them go to the funeral. everyone is sad , no riots today. A photo from associated press goes around, showing a policeman training his gun at the protesters during the sunday march. So much for the isolated incident which was the defending line of the police. In a court where some other policemen are standing to trial following the assault on a student last year (the camera caught 7 of them hitting him again and again with no apparent reason), the defenders claim no remorse. The DA changes the charges from heavy unprovoked assault, to heavy assault. The decision of the court is delayed but everyone understands that the assaulting policemen are up to minimal penalties. Rumors go around that the ballistic test showed that the bullet that killed the boy was deflected. Well in greece this phrase is very heavy. Because the last 20 years nearly every incident concerning a cop killing a citizen, a bullet was deflected. Legally it has a huge meaning. A deflected bullet mean shooting with no intention to kill, rather than the cold blooded execution that it was. Of course every deflected bullet hits the unfortunate victim in a vital part. People get angrier. Greece is torn in two. Those that want law and order and those that want justice. Many times the same person declares both opinions. Media are trying to instill fear. People start to think if a broken bank is such a grave incident. The funeral takes place. Riot police show up without any reason, firing CN gas inside the graveyard. Youths answer with stones. In a street around 10 policemen in motorcycles are trying to attack 20 or so youths. But these were only the first from a big crowd coming from the funeral from around the corner. Cops are throwing back stones. The crowd is angry. Then the cops draw guns and fire 15 shots inthe air and then drive away. A camera caught the incident, yet police inquiry show that only one bullet was fired. Some analysts say that many cops have second undeclared guns.

All those actions show that the police has declared independence from their political supervisors. Feeling betrayed by the party most admired by them, they start to act alone. Drawing guns all the time, shooting, not showing remorse for the killing, rigging the ballistic examination , they are doing anything even if they know that this will hurt the government. Acting as a community they support the killer, who shows no remorse and stating that he acted with duty in a dangerous situation.

...to be continued