http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_columns_1_06/11/2009_11...

Greece’s public order impasse stems from the confluence of two very
serious problems – the inadequate training of police officers and the
public’s very ambivalent attitude toward youthful violence. Each
problem alone would be dangerous; the two together are disastrous. We
saw this most starkly 11 months ago, when a police officer on patrol
in Exarchia shot and killed a teenager, sparking days of riots that
brought central Athens to the brink of anarchy as the police heeded
orders to let the protests rage without impediment.

The trigger-happy police officer, who goes on trial with his patrol
partner on December 15, appears to have been a burned-out veteran of
the Exarchia police station who, obviously, should have been rotated
out of the area years earlier. The incident brought to light the
lapses in the psychological evaluation and inadequate training of
police officers. The reaction by school students and by
battle-hardened self-proclaimed anti-establishment types was only to
be expected after the death of the 15-year-old boy. What was just
slightly less predictable was that the conservative government at the
time would order riot squads to stand aside and let the protesters
burn and loot their way across Athens. The riot squads are the
best-trained units of the police force and, with regular experience of
street battles, have both the training and the cool-headedness to keep
things under control. Ordering them to stand back destroyed their
morale, encouraged extremists to raise the level of violence and
torpedoed the conservatives’ credibility with their core constituency:
the good burghers who vote for a party expecting it to ensure law and
order.

The New Democracy government fell in the October elections, but its
mishandling of December’s crisis, as well as its weakening of the
anti-terrorism squad, resulted in a spike in terrorist activity that
is strikingly evident in the time line that we present on pages 4-5.
And this upsurge in murderous violence is very much with us. The
government’s passivity in December was borne out of a terror of being
accused of authoritarianism by the left-wing opposition parties and
news media. Citizens’ Protection Minister Michalis Chrysochoidis
picked up the masked youths’ gauntlet just days after the PASOK
government was sworn in, and just a day after troublemakers rampaged
through parts of the center again. One of the new government’s most
experienced members, Chrysochoidis oversaw the dismantling of the
November 17 gang in 2003. He argues that the hooded youths and the
terrorist gangs are closely related, and he has taken the fight to
them. After the inertia of the previous administration encouraged the
anti-establishment buildup, the crackdown has provoked the predictable
but very extreme reaction.

It is clear that much of the new government’s standing will depend on
how it manages to curb the violence. Unfortunately, this has prompted
some opposition parties to treat the government as if it were a
dictatorship and Chrysochoidis some crackpot whose motive was to
destroy civil liberties rather than someone trying to safeguard
liberties by imposing the law. There are even suggestions that members
of his own party would prefer that Chrysochoidis not stir up the
hornets’ nest, forgetting that the hornets that were allowed to fatten
undisturbed are now big enough to constitute a great and unpredictable
threat.

Greece has been accustomed to street violence as a rite of passage for
disaffected or self-aggrandizing youths. But the poison of violence
spreads very easily and begets more violence. The government must
recruit and train police officers so that they are up to the
challenges that they face. All political parties, professional groups,
news media and citizens must act in unison and drive home the message
that though it is the government’s responsibility to maintain order,
it is everyone’s right to enjoy peace and security – and an obligation
to demand them.

--
June Samaras
KALAMOS BOOKS
(For Books about Greece)
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