The rocks are lying everywhere in the streets. Thousands and thousands of them. Iron rods are also littered about, as are makeshift wooden clubs and spent cartridges. The sharp stench of teargas floats through the air, mixed with the acrid odor of melted plastic. Flames shoot out of trash bins; a Japanese compact lies on its side. And from behind the fence surrounding the Athens Polytechnic, black clad rioters are chanting as loud as they can:
“Pigs! Swine! Murderers!”
“Pigs! Swine! Murderers!”
Facing them, around 10 or 20 meters away, is a unit of riot police, armed with truncheons and armored with shields and white helmets. Earlier, the police had spoken of following a strategy of de-escalation — but by late Tuesday night, that, apparently, had been discarded. “Come on out you cowards! Come out and get us,” yells the police commander. He bends down to grab a rock and hurls it at the demonstrators. His men do the same. It’s a revolt in reverse.
It is the fourth night since 15-year-old Alexandros Grigoropoulos died after being shot in the breast by a policeman. And still, peace refuses to return to the Greek capital.
From a different article in Spiegel….
The two seem enthusiastic as they chat to each other, smiling and cracking jokes. Perhaps they’re related. At the same time, the mates of a rioter standing next to him are busy ripping apart the sidewalk. The woman says goodbye, kissing both of his cheeks, before gracefully tottering away. Then one of the rioters turns around, picks up a large rock and throws it down into the street where the police are standing.
It’s the daily dose of anarchy in Athens, that entered into its fifth day on Wednesday.
The Greek riots are a textbook example of how deep a country can sink if it lacks democracy’s most important element, the support and acceptance of its people. The scales of democracy have tipped here, and one inevitably gets the impression these days that there are few left who still trust the government to find the right path. Their experiences with its scandals, cronyism and corruption are too deeply seated. And it is in their unanimous rejection of the elite that both business people and the Black Bloc anarchists have found common ground.
Spiegel almost makes it sound heroic to destroy the sidewalk and throw it at the police. Granted, the Greek political elite is pretty corrupt, but the people of Greece are hardly oppressed. If they were being oppressed, there would be a lot more then just one punk dead. Heck, the police are barred by law from entering the universities. This gives the rioters a place to rearm and regroup unmolested by the evil forces of authority. How is that for oppression? Whats more, the protesters have been rioting for almost a week without have any clear idea of what they hope to accomplish. I guess they just want hope and change.
Greece has the government that it deserves but that government has no authority.