Two days before the fifth anniversary of the
murder in Exarcheia, Athens, by the police, of the youth Alexandros
Grigoropoulos, plain clothes police shot and wounded an anarchist in
the same area, Exarcheia.
Before I start describing the incident,
I would like to mention the reasons why I haven’t initiated any
formal complaint or lawsuit. First off, I declare myself an
anarchist-antiauthoritarian. Therefore, my conscience cannot be
misled by legal proceedings. Freedom combatants should draw the
battle lines against the system and its “privileges” offered to
us. In the following account of the incident (which occurred two days
before the anniversary of the murder of comrade Alexis Grigoropoulos,
in 2008), I want to make it clear that I do not consider myself a
victim of the described attack, because the battle lines are drawn,
and we stand against the enemy, as I already mentioned.
On the night of December 4, 2013 I was
in the downtown area of Exarchia alongside other comrades, when we
understood that we were followed by three plainclothes cops close to
the corner of Benaki and Eressou streets. We briefly talked about
what to do, and then we chased and harassed the cops. Two of the
plainclothes ran away on Dervenion street toward Zoodochou Pigis
street, while the third cop ran off to Eressou street, heading also
to Zoodochou Pigis. It came as no surprise when we saw the first two
thugs making a turn into Valtetsiou street and then on to Charilaou
Trikoupi street, exactly where an anti-riot squadron is permanently
stationed. We looked back, towards the third cop, and I yelled at
him: “Where do you think you’re going, you fuckin’ undercover?”
Suddenly I noticed that he was holding a gun pointed at me, and he
shouted: “Come here… I’ll fuck you over” pointing his gun at
my chest. In the next few seconds he cocked his pistol, ready to
fire, and I shouted back at him: “What are you going to do, shoot
me?” He shot me in the leg. At that precise moment, I didn’t
realized that I was injured however, and the thought that his next
bullet would hit me made me run towards Exarchia square, where I
finally saw I was wounded in the leg.
I considered useful to disclose this
information not to spread fear but rage. We won’t chicken out no
matter what; they must get it through their heads we don’t bend,
not even with bullets.
Attack first and always, with every
possible way and every means, against the State and its minions.
See each other on the streets today,
December 6 and every day.
The bullet will be returned to both the
instigators and the perpetrators of the shot.
Strength to the vagabonds who are
accused in the cases of Velventos and Nea Filadelfeia.
Two days later, on the anniversary of
the murder of Alexandros Grigoropoulos, the people of Athens took to
the streets to mark this cold blooded murder of the young Alexandros,
and as normal in Greece, when you take a protest to the streets, you
are met with the full force of the state apparatus. As well as the
usual stun grenades, baton attacks and detentions, the police spent a
considerable effort trying to remove radical posters from the walls
in Exarcheia.
20:48 GMT +2 Police have cordoned much
of exarcheia.
20:16 GMT +2 The police have already
attacked the square in exarcheia. People are gathering and setting up
barricades on Benaki street and sidestreets.
19:56 GMT +2 The demonstration in
Athens has ended, people are gathering at the place where Alexis was
murdered. A couple of hundreds are there already, gathering is called
for 9pm local time – the time that Alexis was shot.
14:27 GMT +2 Cops are slowly leaving
now and students are being released after being searched by the cops.
Seems to be the first time the cops have used the “kettling”
technique (well-known in the UK) in a greek demo.
14:16 GMT +2 More students trapped,
probably about 300 now.
14:02 GMT +2 They are now pushing all journalists away and more
cops are arriving.
13:45 GMT +2 Student demo of approximately 2-3000 people is coming
to an end. The cops have kettled about 200 people outside the
university.
Visit ann arky's home at
www.radicalglasgow.me.uk