The protests of that night became an annual tradition. The killing of Alexandros Grigoropoulos on December 6, 2008, carries significant weight for Greek society. For many, it remains a deep collective wound, marking a turning point in the country’s modern history. The death of a 15-year-old at the hands of a police officer is seen as a stark reminder of how fragile the relationship between citizens and state authorities can be.
It has also become a symbol of social injustice and public frustration. The unrest that followed in December 2008 reflected not only anger over the incident itself but also the broader tension of a society already under economic and political strain. Each year, the anniversary reignites discussions about police conduct, youth rights, institutional accountability, and how societies should respond to violence.
For younger generations in particular, December 6 has become a day associated with civic engagement and political awareness, a moment to remember the need for justice and active participation in public life.
~ Full article…
December 15, 2008
Riots or revolt? – An insight into why Greece is now in flames
Many Greek journalists and foreign correspondents have ‘grokked’ the situation. Some, like Brady Kiesling, the former diplomat who resigned his post at the embassy of the United States in Athens in protest against the policies of the Bush regime, deserve kudos for their astute and accurate assessments of the situation.
Others may be in denial. How else to explain the reports by the likes of John Carr. In his early articles on the Athens riots to British newspapers Mr. Carr reported the official police version of events and gave no say to the eyewitnesses whose version of the event was available from the first moments of this tragedy. Mr. Carr’s depiction of Exarchia as a ‘heavily policed district’ is indicative of how out of touch he is with Athenian reality. One television commentator recently described the Exarchia police station as a precinct with the “globally exclusive” distinction of existing primarily to defend itself – the police station to which the man who pulled the trigger of his gun on that fateful evening reported to. What the commentator meant was that it is not actively defending the precinct’s constituents. If Mr. Carr had bothered to ask how ‘heavily policed’ the residents of Exarchia feel he might be surprised to find how many have called the police to request help while break-ins to their homes were in progress only to be told it was too dangerous an area for police to intervene. It is an area where police only enter in squads and where undercover law enforcement officers have been assaulted and have even had their weapons stolen. It is an area where a few months ago local groups initiated identification spot-checks to weed out undercover policemen in their midst.
Mr. Carr and his ilk report from a position of haughty condescension. One remark of his – something to the effect that hooliganism is a 3,000-year-old Greek tradition – drew caustic comments from television news anchor Olga Tremi and her guest, MP Fotini Pipili.
Other British and American journalists have commented on the ‘fragility’ of democracy in the land that spawned this system. Maybe they should take stock of the civil liberties that have evaporated in their own lands. Where people may be legally disappeared in the dead of night to military camps in the Caribbean, where people may be shot, beaten or tased to death by overzealous enforcers of the ‘law’, where foreign nationals may be shot in cold blood while taking a ride in the subway, and where business is expected to continue as usual after such atrocities occur.
What Mr. Carr refuses to grasp is that the youth of Greece (and of several other countries if recent events are taken into account) is fed up with the current paradigm of ‘democratic’ regimes. The ‘free world’ is taking stock of its situation. It is taking a long hard look in the mirror and realizing that the enemy may indeed be its own self. It is understanding that freedom is a privilege accorded to a few of its elite and denied to its vast majority. This reality check may have pushed many to the realization that they have more to lose than to gain by perpetuating the current order of things.
