Gone Rogue.

 

 

                                      Image courtesy of Workers Revolutionary Party

           The powerful and the privileged always build organisations to protect them and their wealth and privileges. Over time they keep making them stronger and more powerful and eventually they are out of control and become just another rogue power in society. That's policing today in our so called democracies.

                                             Image courtesy of Belfast Telegraph.

The following is from Act for Freedom Now. 

Greece: Testimony of the brother of a dead teenager
12/11/2023

        “We were with my brother, his girlfriend and her sister. He didn’t have a driving licence yet and now that he was nearly 18 he was about to get one. We had taken the car for a drive. We were going from Aliarto to Leontari Thebes. My brother signaled to him to stop but because there were bends in the road there, he didn’t want to as he was afraid someone might come in the opposite direction and there would be a crash. My brother was scared because we had the girls in the car. A little further on, at about 800 metres, he put on the hazard lights and stopped the car.”
         The brother of the dead 17-year-old and an eyewitness stated that “the policeman got out of the cop car fuming with nerves, approached, hit the car window on my brother’s side with his gun, with force. My brother opened the door, he didn’t have time to get out before the policeman starting kicking him in the ribs, in the legs, on his shins, grabbed him by the T shirt and shot him. The asphalt was covered in my brother’s blood. For nothing. There are witnesses. No pursuit, nothing. At that moment there was nothing I or the girls could do”.

Some up dates: 12/11/ 23 In Thessaloniki, a march of about 300 people. Strong tension.

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Murder.

 

Alexis Grigoropoulos

 

          I was in Athens on December 6th 2008 when 15 year old kid Alexis Grigoropoulos was out for a Saturday night coffee with his friend, Nikos Romanos, in the district of Exarchiea, when laughter turned to tragedy, when a police officer shot young Alexis dead, he died on the street in the arms of his friend Nikos. This brutal state murder brought the people of that country onto the streets in a display of united anger and disgust. I joined some of the protests in Athens during that December, and you could feel the anger. It was awe inspiring to see so many people demonstrating their fury at this callous murder of a youth. Greece was seized by riots for weeks on end.
        Jump forward almost 15 years to the day of that callous brutal act and it seems history repeats itself. In Thessoloniki, on the 5th. of December, this year 2022, a police officer shot a 15 year old youth twice in the head, shot for 20 Euros of petrol. Is there any wonder that the people of that country are angry, furious, disgusted at this repeat of the callous act of 2008. We too should be angry, for it is now common for the police armed like the military parading through our streets, we too have individuals shot and killed on our streets. The state says the police are there to protect us, when in fact they intimidate and terrorise the general public. 

 

Niko Romanos

  The following from Enough is Enough.

           It was during the early hours of Monday 5 December 2022, when a 16 year old kid was shot in the head by a greek police officer of the DIAS motorcycle unit during a car chase in Thessaloniki. He was accused that he filled his pick-up truck with 20 euros worth of petrol and left the petrol station without paying.
           Following the news and his dire physical condition, riots erupted in the city of Thessaloniki, located in the north of Greece, later on the same day. At the same time, in Athens, several different protests were held in the evening of December the 5th. The protest in Exarcheia, held in front of the memorial of Alexis Grigoropoulos, (a 15 year old kid that was shot dead by a cop on 6 December 2008, sparking the events that would lead to massive riots all over Greece, known as the December Revolt) soon turned into a march that led to a riot, as seen in the video.
        It has to be noted, that today 6 December, protests have been planned in dozens of cities and towns all over Greece, in remembrance of the December Revolt and the murder of Alexandros Grigoropoulos by the police in Exarcheia 15 years ago to this day.

 

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Anger.

 

            Back from a wee break in the wilderness I thought I would re-start my rantings with a video from Sub Media. Here they bring together a series of May Day happenings across the world. It is impossible today to find a country where the people are not on the streets in anger at the system that shackles millions to poverty, destitution and war, and where the public's opinion of politicians has sunk somewhere low in the sewage system, from Sudan to Sri Lanka, from Paris to Montreal, from Berlin to Chile. The people are angry, the privileged parasites are nervous, expect the unexpected.

A note from SubMedia regarding this video:

         During the production of this episode we were working with the most up to date information at the time when we had said nobody had died at the May Day protests in Chile. Unfortunately we have since learned that Francisca Sandoval, a journalist age 29 died several days later in the hospital. Our condolences go out to her family and loved ones.

We're sorry for any confusion this may have caused

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Killer Cops.

      Every state by necessity has its police force, it needs its paid thugs as it tries to control the population and stop them from making changes to society that would benefit all and remove the power and privileges of the parasite class that try to control all aspects of our lives.  They can beat up, kill and maim but are very rarely brought to justice, and if they are held to account by the loaded judiciary, they usually get off very lightly indeed. This case from Greece is replicated in some form or other in states across the globe. Where there is state power, there is no justice, no freedom.

 

           In the early hours of Saturday 23/10/21, 7 bike cops were chasing a car they thought was stolen. In it were three young guys, which the cops recognized as roma. A bit later, there were 38 fire-shots, aimed not at the tires of the car (in their supposed attempt to stop it), but higher; in a clear attempt to injure/murder the passengers of the car. All shots were fired by the cops. The three young guys were unarmed. Nikos Sampanis, the 18-year-old co-driver was instantly killed, as he was hit with 2 bullets on the chest. A 16-year-old is injured and still in hospital and the 14-year-old driver ran away amidst gunfire. The cops were initially arrested and were charged with the felony of manslaughter and attempted manslaughter.

         A few minutes after their *arrest*, Spyridon Georgiadis, Minister for Development and Investment, tweeted his congratulations to the murderous cops. The Citizen Protection Minister, Takis Theodorikakos, paid them a visit in jail. For “symbolic reasons” as he stated.
        From the very first moment, mass media in Greece focused on the fact that the murdered young man is a “roma”. Additionally, they falsely reported that he had a heavy criminal record. This was proven to be a blatant lie. In fact, the notorious police reporter Nina Karamitrou posted a photo of a man with dark skin holding a gun, presenting him as the dead Nikos. The photo was fake. The cops’ attorney, A. Kougias, characterized the roma community in Greece “a plague”. Al. Kougias is a well-known lawyer from criminal cases but also a defense lawyer in cases of the Greek mafia. He was also the defense attorney for the cop that murdered 16-year-old A.Grigoropoulos in 2008.
        The greek reality is that the roma community is constantly targetted by the authorities and subjected to racism and discrimination in the greek society. The roma community is a typical case of a marginalized community.
         Yesterday evening the investigator and prosectutor decided to release from custody with no restrictive measures all cops with felony charges. Once again, minutes after the decision, the Citizen Protection Minister, Takis Theodorikakos, expressed his “satisfaction on the decision of the independent judiciary”.
Your democracy is fed on blood – The cops murder – Corrupt Greek Mass Media fabricate news directed by the state and capital – The judiciary harbours and enables
WE DO NOT FORGIVE – WE DO NOT FORGET

 

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I Am.

 

FIRES OF THE FUTURE.

I am fire,
I surge, I hiss,
sometimes bursting forth in a flame
that lights up the world
illuminating unimagined dreams.
Then the black cloak
blankets out the glow.
Again all is dark,
but, still
beneath the surface
I surge, I hiss,
I endure, waiting, seeking,
building up pressure.
One day I will explode
destroying forever
the Tartarean crust of oppression.
I am fire,
I am the people.

        The people of Colombia have been on the streets for 67 consecutive days, facing savage brutality in the form of torture, beatings, disappearances, live ammunition  and rape at the hands of the state's minders, the police. This shows to what lengths the state will go to subdue the people, and it also shows what the people are facing in their struggle for justice, equality and freedom. The new world of justice for all will not be created on social media, it will not be legislated into being within the corridors of power. That world that belongs to the people and functions for all the people, will only be won on the streets, in the workplaces and in the local communities. A major weapon in that struggle will be the solidarity between communities, but that solidarity must cross those imaginary lines drawn by the power mongers, borders must fall, national flags used as firelighters. There can be no divisions between the ordinary people. It is one world, we are one people, this world is ours by right of the sweat, toil and blood of our previous generations.

I AM THE CROWD.

I am the crowd
I swim in the quagmire of poverty
its hooks, its barbs, tear my flesh
rupture my dreams,
I hold my breath for centuries
hoping to break through, gasp pure air.
Through the murky mire
I see bright things, shiny things, sparkle
I see women in fine dresses, men in silk shirts.
I ask myself,
why do I swim in this cesspool?
I want the light and warmth of rectitude
to caress my labouring body,
seeds of my dreams to bloom
like wild flowers in a meadow.
One day, I will use my boundless strength
to haul this torn, battered being
out of the morass
onto the warm grassy bank,
when I do;
woe betide you, women in fine dresses
woe betide you mister in your fine silk shirt
should you ever try to get in my way,
for I am the strength of the world,
I am the crowd.

Medellín. Colombia. 

          A few days ago, during the anti-government protests in Medellin, Colombia a 15 year old girl was raped by the police. On July 2, groups of feminists set fire to the police station with Molotov cocktails.

Originally published by Abolition Media Worldwide.

        This is not an isolated case, since the protests started, more than 2 months ago, 28 women have been raped.
         The uprising in Colombia has hit its 67th consecutive day. Despite hundreds of people being killed and disappeared, and police shooting out the eyes of demonstrators, people have been returning to the streets, fighting back valiently, burning police stations and attacking police.

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Anti-Social!!!

          In this society if you don't play by the rules of the pampered privileged class you will probably find yourself at the wrong end of their loaded judicial system and the attendant enforcement apparatus. Try to set up some sort of alternative way of living that doesn't tie you into the consumer cancer that is eating the planet and you you will be labelled anti-social, trouble maker, or criminal. The state and its capitalist consumer model of existence, demands total obedience, and subservience to its rigid rules, that are there to protect the privileged powerful parasite class. That of course should not deter us from always seeking that alternative way to live, free from the capitalist mode of existence, it should open our eyes wider to the destructive, repressive structure of this greed driven state/capitalist economic straight jacket that tries to bind us all to its crippling tutelage. 

The following from Act For Freedom Now.

 

           This is a statement from some squatters in Bristol, who had 4 squats, including 40a Space, Salvation Army mutual aid/social centres and Wonky Arrow Books, a radical library.
 

 

        In the past days, we’ve had our buildings forcibly closed with anti-social behaviour orders, and we’ve been raided by hundreds of riot police. We’ve been beaten, pepper-sprayed, arrested, and sectioned.
       This is an escalation– it hasn’t been like this in the UK in years. Not that this is new. No, we see this as part of a long and brutal history of the repression of marginalised communities, and anyone who shows resistance or alternatives.
        The police and state media will try and paint this as the result of us being ‘anti-social’ – but isn’t it the police who hurt and intimidate us? Who break down the doors; who criminalize and target poor people, people of colour, travelling communities, people who live differently? It is the state and the police that are truly anti-social, at the core of the troubles we face in our lives. 

 

        This is an attempt to intimidate us, to repress mobilization in Bristol (especially around Kill the Bill) and to break down a community that is challenging the police and what they represent. We know that real community makes police obsolete.

 

 Continue Reading HERE:

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Unacceptable.

 

         I doubt I have agreed with one word Bumbling Boris ever spoke, until now. I whole heartedly agree with his statement that the scenes of violence witnessed at the "Kill the Bill" protests, in Bristol and Manchester are unacceptable. The sooner that we get those thugs with their helmets, shields and flaying batons, off our streets the better. We then can get on with allowing the people to protest what is obvious a very undemocratic draconian piece of legislation, which is taking us deeper into the controlled police state.

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No Art!!

          In Greece it is now illegal apparently, to be standing still while socially distancing in a public square. Art students decided to act as a display of various paintings and artworks, standing in Syntagma Square hoping to interact with passers by, however their only contact was with riot police shields.

 

      See about: Police violence again in silent protest of artists in the Constitution [Video] Attack on artists in Syntagma: What really happened and Chrysochoidis' cameras did not show

        

March 24, 2021, Athens, Syntagma Square.

        While "the new National Gallery is brilliantly performed", students of the drama schools of Athens gathered at Syntagma and built our own National Gallery of the Square. Disguised as well-known paintings and sculptures, we asked the Ministry of Education and Science "If the theater could fit in the gallery, would you give it more importance?"
        By creating a living gallery, we exposed ourselves to passers-by trying to communicate what we have been experiencing absurdly for almost 5 months. Eventually, for its part, the state only sent the police to "contact" us, resulting in our violent repulsion with their shields and tear gas, as the Deputy Minister of Culture, Mr. Giatromanolakis, was busy with the inauguration.
      We answered, we answer and we will answer with Art, with our Art. If we want Greece to be more than a theme park of past cultures and greatness, if we want it to be a fertile ground that creates and continues to produce culture, the State owes the practical and direct support of the artistic community. We demand the state care that is owed to us. We demand immediate and clear answers to the questions we have repeatedly asked the leadership of the Ministry.
         Culture is not inherited, culture is conquered by each generation again. The students of Drama Schools ”

From: alerta.gr **********

Poor translation from the Greek, but the best I could get. 

Original Greek text HERE:

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Bias?

       Isn't it interesting how the Western mainstream media are always showing the police violence in places like Russia and Hong Kong, yet police violence in the EU doesn't seem to get much of an airing. Do you think there might be a wee bit of bias there? Police violence is part and parcel of the state system, not as the media would try to have you believe, that it's a product of bad evil states, who, by some strange coincidence, don't fit into the Western capitalist model.
      States and police are co-joined twins, and the job of the police is to dish out what ever violence they deem necessary to protect the power and privileges of the state, no matter the shade, shape or other characteristics of that state. What kind of person takes on the job of beating up their fellow citizens to protect the rich and powerful, who don't give a shit about their paid minders, or the citizens.

 

  

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It's Law!!

         The Greek state shows how to use Covid19 to control public protests and demonstrations. Since 2008 after the murder of teenager Alexis Grigoropoulos by a police officer, the people of Greece have marked his cold bloody murder by mass gatherings, and march to the place where the police officer cold bloodedly gun down the 15 year old teenager. This year the state uses the pandemic to stop this annual commemoration of a child murder. A massive police presence surrounded the memorial to his shooting. This was a mass gathering of heavily armed police formed to stop a mass gathering of unarmed people. The people of Greece have shown in the past that they can hold mass gatherings while keeping social distancing, but the state was more interested in putting a stop to this annual remembrance of a police killing than anything to do with the pandemic. This is a repeat of the police violence launched against the annual march and demonstration marking the 1973 student uprising that eventually lead to the overthrow of the Greek Military junta.

         The state will do all in its power to quash any thought of marking events against authority, this pandemic has given them carte blanche in dealing with public protests. It is a right we relinquish at our peril. No doubt state's across the globe will do likewise drawing on the "emergency" laws to stop the spread of Covid19, to stop mass public gatherings and protests. All for your own good of course.

       Police in Greece’s capital have detained dozens of people who defied a coronavirus-related ban to take part in the annual commemoration of the fatal shooting of 15-year-old Alexandros Grigoropoulos by a police officer in 2008.
        Some 4,000 police officers were deployed on Sunday to prevent gatherings and will continue to do so until the early hours of Monday. 

Protesters shout slogans after being detained in Athens during a rally marking the killing of Alexandros Grigoropoulos 12 years ago [Yorgos Karahalis/AP Photo]

        Footage posted online showed riot police on Sunday afternoon entering apartment buildings in Exarcheia, a neighbourhood in central Athens, to flush out would-be protesters. One video showed officers throwing stun grenades inside a building. Another clip showed police pushing photojournalists and other accredited members of the media. 

A picture of Alexandros Grigoropoulos, right, at an impromptu shrine at the site of the fatal shooting in Athens 12 years ago [File: Lefteris Pitarakis/AP Photo]

       

         The scenes reminded the heavy-handed tactics adopted by police last month when they violently broke up a peaceful rally commemorating a 1973 student uprising against Greece’s then-military rulers.

The following from AA:

        Over 100 people have been detained in Greece’s capital who gathered to mark the 12th anniversary of police killing of a 15-year-old boy on Sunday, local media reported. Tension rose as police tried to disperse demonstrators that gathered in central Athens where the shooting took place, according to Athens-Macedonian News Agency.

      The government had announced a ban on public gatherings of more than three people as a measure to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Some protesters tried to hold banners, but where stopped by the police.
       Meanwhile, the Greek police said five policemen were injured following a mob attack outside the police station of Kolonos, a northwest suburb of Athens, on Saturday.  Nearly 80 people had been arrested, they said.
      "Yesterday, on December 5, 2020 afternoon, nearly 80 people, with covered faces, wearing helmets and full-face hoods, tried to approach and attack the Kolonos police station," the police said.

 

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Accepted Violence.

          Why do we need a police force, and if we have one how do you train them? It seems that certain police forces in America use quotes from Adolf Hitler and Mein Kampf, trains recruits to kill without emotion, and to see killing as the probable outcome of their interaction with the public. Of course ever political alive person is fully aware of why we have a police force, it's there to protect the managers of the system and their wealth, power and privileges. It is the first line of defence should the ordinary people get pissed off with the gross inequality and try to do something about eliminating that inequality. When you create a state police force, you eliminate any possibility of democracy, democracy and police authority are totally incompatible.

       The following is a quote from an interesting article by World Socialist Web Site:

 

      Killing and a well-known police trainer. Grossman’s “teachings” have been used by the US military to train recruits to kill without thinking.
       Grossman has argued, without evidence, that policing is more dangerous than in previous decades and therefore cops must be prepared to use more, not less, force. During a PBS Frontline interview in 2004 Grossman argued that he was not conditioning soldiers and police to kill without hesitation, but to embrace the responsibility of killing stating: “Killing is not the goal, but we all understand that killing is the likely outcome.”
       He, along with his business partner, Jim Glennon, a Chicago Police officer for 21 years, have been elevated to bring the training and “lethality” they learned in the military to the “homeland” to be used against the domestic working class.
       It is notable that Hall’s training curriculum was used by the KSP during the administration of former Democratic governor Steve Beshear, and was only brought to light years later upon an open records request. There is no doubt that similar curriculums are currently in use by police agencies throughout the country.
     While the Democratic party occasionally pays lip service to the idea of “reforming” the police, the fact is the police are the frontline troops of the bourgeoisie, given immense power and virtual legal immunity to beat, assault and kill workers and youth. It was the Obama/Biden administration that oversaw the militarized crackdown in Ferguson, Missouri and of Native American and other protesters during the Standing Rock demonstrations in North Dakota. They also oversaw the transfer of 460,000 pieces of military equipment to local police departments under the 1033 program.

       The defeat of fascism and the elimination of police violence is bound up with the abolition of capitalism. Those who are interested in joining this struggle must break from the Democratic Party, and all their pseudo-left hangers-on,

Red the full article HERE:

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk 

Greek Summer.

      While tourists fly in to Greece and its beautiful beaches and islands, perhaps they should take a moment and have a look at what is happening to the ordinary people who inhabit that little patch of the planet.
        Police violence is not something that is limited to any one patch on this planet, every state has it array of armed thugs, and experience tells us that violence by police is part and parcel of their routine. They must serve their master, the state, obediently and wholeheartedly.

The following extracts are from crimethinc: 

 Summer in Greece: New Democracy Edition.

          In Greece, following the accession of the New Democracy party and a ban on freedom of assembly, the simmering conflict between anarchists and the far right continues, even in the middle of summer. In this report, we cover gentrification, escalating tensions with Turkey, ecological struggles, refugee and prisoner solidarity, the eviction of the historic Terra Incognita squat, and more.
         The Greek government and its bootlickers and beneficiaries are stumbling towards disaster. The economic crisis of 2008 will soon be seen as easier times. While tourists wander Greece dropping coins into the pockets of the bosses, only half of society can afford to take a holiday this year—something considered indispensable in the hot Greek summer. COVID-19 cases are at record highs. The daily infection rates are much higher than they were when the country was in formal lockdown back in March. Yet the state continues cutting hospital budgets in order to redirect funds to police agencies, focusing on its human opponents rather than the virus.
        In Greece, as elsewhere in the world, revolutionaries, the excluded, and the exploited struggle with self-preservation both materially and psychologically in the face of the slow-motion COVID-19 apocalypse and the right-wing police state. While new measures are going into effect and a second lockdown seems likely, we find strength in understanding that both our precarity and the struggle against it are shared globally. The struggle here is rooted deep in the discontent of countless beautiful hearts and a history in the streets: “Even if we never win, we will always fight!” -------

Police Violence:   Rest in Power, Vassilis Maggos 

 

 

     ---------As described in our last report, the anarchist Vassilis Maggos was brutally beaten by police during a demonstration expressing solidarity with those arrested while protesting a cement factory in Volos. He suffered intense psychological trauma while in recovery from the beating. Police seized his body from his family in order for the police to use their own coroner, following a public outcry about the 26-year-old’s death. The police brought in Eleni Kalyva to conduct the autopsy—she is a well-known ally that the police have repeatedly employed to investigate controversial cases in which officers may have been at fault. She is known to have fascist sympathies and a close relationship with the current government.
       Eleni Kalyva’s conclusion was that Vassilis died of acute pulmonary edema. The police claim that this was not due to the beating; however, the full investigation has not been made public, and his family is seeking outside help. Vassilis spent his final weeks of his life recovering from the pain and trauma of being beaten by police. Using a familiar playbook, right-wing social media have cited personal issues such as drug use as a way to suggest that Vassilis was responsible for his own death. Even if drug use had something to do with his passing, the trauma of being beaten and tortured by police was clearly the cause of his tragic death, and drug use or other issues do not diminish the responsibility of the police.
       The police also brought Eleni Kalyva to investigate the murder of a girl in Trikala in late July, when a 16-year-old girl who was known to have a relationship with a police officer was found dead outside of a church. Kalyva was called in to investigate her death after suspicions began to circulate that the girl had been murdered by her police officer boyfriend. Now we are told that the girl climbed to the top of the church and killed herself—which would be a surprising feat, given the details of the situation, but Kalyva confirmed the claims of the police.
      Anarchists and anti-fascist football fans have spread murals, banners, and graffiti across Greece remembering Vassilis Maggos. A Molotov cocktail attack against a government building in Volos took place in this his name, as well as an arson attack on a bank in Marroussi, Athens. He will be remembered.-----

The world-famous Terra Incognita squat before its eviction.

Conclusion 

         It’s August in Greece and most people are away from their homes—or wish they could be. It’s hot and the situation is grim. Yet even amid the harsh summer, there have been demonstrations against the bill described in our previous report banning unpermitted protests. Fresh graffiti all over the country expresses insurrectionary discontent.
      The church and the far right count on the neo-liberal New Democracy administration to coddle them. Greece received some seventy billion euros in COVID-19 relief from the European union, but we know that money will chiefly serve to provide more contracts to the wealthy and to hire more police to protect their power and enforce their laws. Whatever happens in the coming months, we hope the fall will see a new wave of resistance ignite in Greece and around the world.

Read the full article HERE: 

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