GeorgeM4 writes: “The kid was a 15-year old from an affluent family and was there for a friends celebration. There was a group of 30 unconnected youths that threw some rocks to a passing police car.”

I respond:

“Youths,” indeed.

The socialist/marxist elements in Greece and the EU concentrate in university areas since the activists/thugs can receive benefits and identity as studetns. As commenters have noted, above, education is free.

Greek law prohibits police from entering into a university campus. The advantages of this policy for rioters is obvious.

ANSWER, during our election cycle, exemplified the possibilities of a marxist organization using and riding upon possible legitimate grievances.

Which is why we’re talking about colonizing Mars now.

Similar to what happened to Egypt, Rome, and other great empires.

The cycle is the civilization grows, and becomes an empire. Bright young men without connections into the elite have fewer opportunities under the empire. The bright young men move to the frontier of the empire where opportunities still exist.

After a while, the empire has lost most of its bright young men, and collapses. Meanwhile, a new frontier civilization emerges.

At that time, I considered Greece to be 2nd-world country. It was way before it was admitted to the EU community and seeing open sewage flow out of the ground and across sidewalks in Voula — which fronts a beautiful shoreline — made it so. How does man muck up such beauty?

On the other hand, I was consistently impressed by how learned and easy the typical Greek citizen had his/her way with language and customs of those of us enjoying their hospitality and graciousness. Most Greeks speak more than one language and often you find that they are fluent in at least three: their own and probably German and English or French. I often overheard conversations between Greeks where the language shifted more than several times depending upon the subject being discussed — often in mid-sentence.

Demotic Greek is an easy language to acquire and is joy to use as much as you may find yourself capable of employment. The alphabet may put you off a little, but after a few days it becomes second nature and is largely phonetic and therefore accessible to a speaker of English. It’s easier to get you mind around it than Hindi.

In some ways Greece is still tribal or at least provincial in viewpoints. If on Crete near Zaros, you will be deep in PASOK territory. If near Episkopi, totally different though those locations are not that many kliks away from each other.

I have every confidence that tensions in Greece will subside that they will be able to make better what they already have. Things here in the USA are not always so great either as a drive through central Detroit or Philadelphia can show.

Finally, and I’ve said it before, asshat police carrying weapons and shooting into crowds must be stripped of their badges and guns (and prosecuted, but I’ll leave that to be determined by the Attica DA). Like chemotherapy for cancer, sometimes the cure is worse than the disease. Law and order, yes. Disorderly law in abuse of authority, no.

Still, a 8-day riot, in which the Socialists seem to have prevailed in the public relations campaign, and will probably lead to the pro-American government’s downfall? I admit that I retain a certain skepticism. Thanks for your analysis though, amigo, that was very informative!

To become a police officer you need 2 years of training (I heard that not sure about the exact training time), after entry exams etc. It seemed the only requirement to become a “special guard” was to show up. No training whatsoever.

Anyway, the opposition parties have exploited the situation, certainly, but the ruling party also made some major booboos in dealing with it.

In his initial testimony (which changed later), the officer claimed that a group of youths attaccked his car and he got out of the car immediately and because the victim (specifically him) was going to throw a molotof bomb at their car he shot three warning shots in the air. He changed it later because the video I mentioned before was published on YouTube.

This may be OK in the US but in Greece and most european countries you don’t fire a weapon unless in self defence. Even worse you never, ever, fire at or even near a crowd (this was an area with crowded outdoor cafes etc.).

So, to clear this up. The kid was NOT a terrorist, leftist, or any other -ist. He was a simple 15-year old kid that went out to an internet cafe for his friend’s celebration. He never threw anything at anyone and was what you call “an innocent by-stander”.
The officer – a well known bully, apparently – parked his police car and walked back to the place of initial incident, started shouting profanities (yes, the officer) at the people that were there at the time (possibly mistaking them for the original group) and when some of them (we don’t know who) shouted back, he drew his gun, aimed and shot at the crowd. The third shot hit the kid in the chest. This is what comes out of eye-witness reports (imagine how crowded it was when you have about 20 people that cacme forward to testify).

The public anger comes from the fact that previous such cases were covered up with lies and the police officers got off scott-free… Everytime. Some months ago, police officers in plain clothing beat a Cypriot student to a pulp and claimed that he fell on some plant pots in his effort to escape. He was also unrelated to any incidents that were happening at the time. Unfortunately for the officers, there was a very clear video of their actions and they got arrested and indicted. Out of the 6, 5 got acquited and one got a 6-month suspension. This decision came out very recently and was definately a factor in the public anger.

When the ricochet news came out people feared that it was going to be perceived as another cover-up (bullets in Greece have the habit of bouncing on things until they find their target). This is why these news were going to make things worse.

The officer’s lawyer actually succeeded in making things worse by coming out with a statement that the kid was often frequenting the area (considered a hotspot of anarcists – but otherwise quite a popular destination for normal people), and that he was thrown out of his previous school and that’s why he had to change and that he was going to football (soccer) matches causing trouble. It’s incredible, because immediately all the victim’s friends, teachers and relatives immediately came out to expose all the above as lies.

The people see that this is on its way to be another cover up. Previously, the victims were older and marginalized or foreign migrants or gypsies and all cover-ups succeeded (although not accepted by some journalists as “justice been done”). This time the kid could have been anyone’s kid. He wasn’t looking for trouble and he got shot in the heart by the people who should be protecting him. Also, the fact that the officer never sought necessary to appologize to the mother and instead attacked the personality of his dead victim through his statement has made matters even worse.

Now you know what we know. What do you think?

My argument is simply that riots like this are not unorganized anger. Spontaneous crowds are not spontaneous for 7 days straight. They are being led; the press is being directed. That the headline you site appeared in the government-supporting newspaper could simply be the opening shot of the new public relations (propaganda) effort. For example, contrary to the US left’s slogans, Fox News reported all manner of Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, No WMDs, and so on.

I see in CNN that the riot began with police killing one youth when they fired on some kids throwing stones at their car. Early ballistic reports show that the bullet probably ricocheted off something and then killed the kid. Who knows whether this is true? Nonetheless, the next sentence in the CNN report is curious: “if this report is true, it is likely to further inflame” the situation.

Really? If the bullet unintentionally struck the punk throwing stones at the police car, this will have the effect of increasing rather than decreasing the anger at the police and the government?

How did that sentence get in there? And there is another but I don’t have much time at the moment – as the Greek PM said: there is a difference between understandable grief and outrage on the one hand and an organized political offensive against the government.

i repeat: the ruling party has a 1 seat majority. people from the Socialist Worker’s Party are acting as narrators in these articles.

come on. cui bono?