Police shooting sparks riots in Greece
By Anthee Carassava
Published: December 7, 2008
ATHENS: Militant youth mounted fresh attacks against the police Sunday, marring at least two marches by demonstrators angered over the death of a teenager whose police shooting sent hundreds of extremists on a weekend rampage, destroying scores of shops, cars and businesses across the country.
The violence rattled Athens and Thessaloniki, the second-largest city in Greece, where black-clad youths hurled gasoline bombs, rocks and clubs at the police, sending hundreds of bystanders and peaceful protestors to a scramble.
In Athens, riot police officers retaliated, firing several rounds of tear gas that cloaked the Greek capital's azure blue skies with plumes of acrid grey smoke.
At least one apartment bloc was evacuated after masked youth torched a car dealership and the ensuing flames licked up to the balconies of residents, the private television state Alpha reported.
About 3,000 defiant protestors managed to peel away from the riots, continuing their march to the national police headquarters.
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The riots, triggered late Saturday when a small group of youths attacked a police car in central Athens, sparked a spree of violence that ripped through the country, leaving many cities shattered like war zones.
"We've never seen anything like this," said a senior police official who requested anonymity because of his involvement in the investigation. "The tension is so thick you can almost cut it with a knife."
The circumstances surrounding the fatal shooting remained unclear.
Still, a police statement issued in the early hours of Sunday said the shooting took place while two officers were targeted by some 30 youths - many of them hurling stones - while patrolling the central district of Exarchia, an unruly haven of leftist extremists.
Both officers left their car to confront the rioters, "firing three shots that resulted in the death of the minor," according to the statement.
Private Greek media and a Web site popular among leftist youths, www.indymedia.org, said the teenager had been shot in the chest and died while being transferred to a hospital.
Both officers - members of Greece's elite police corps - have been suspended and senior officials vowed "exemplary punishment" for anyone found responsible.
"It is inconceivable for there not to be punishment when a person, let alone a minor, loses their life," said Interior Minister Prokopis Pavlopoulos. "The loss of life," he said at a news conference Sunday, "is something that is inconceivable in a democracy."
The deadly shooting sparked widespread riots, with hundreds of militant youth storming the streets of Athens within hours of the incident, hurling firebombs, rocks and slabs of concrete at police officers who retaliated with tear gas.
Private television networks broke into scheduling programming, broadcasting violent shows of street fights, the worse in recent years.
Black-clad youth were seen smashing storefronts, targeting bank branches, torching dozens of garbage bins and cars lined along the meandering streets of Athens's main shopping district.
Similar protests rattled Thessaloniki and a string of other Greek cities, including Chania on the island of Crete.
No casualties were reported, but the overnight riots left Athens and other major cities strewn with shattered glass, burnt appliances and a stinging stench of tear gas.
At least six people were arrested for looting goods from the debris of destroyed department stores and boutiques.
The authorities in Athens braced for heated protests at scheduled demonstrations.
Pavlopoulos on Sunday called for restraint during those rallies. Earlier, he had tendered his resignation but it was not accepted by the prime minister.
"People have the right to protest and will do so, but while the pain and grief caused by the minor's death is understandable," he said, no outrage "can lead to the violence and destruction of private property that was witnessed."
Skopelos and Virgin
-by Skorda
when first you see it
across the water,
rising round and new above the mountain.
Open your mouth and swallow
while youth holds its roundness near,
and you are running fearless in the dark.
Hold it inside, it is still warm
and you will need its light,
there, inside you.
Down the road of time, somewhere
after you’ve aged, traveled,
Explored, discovered.
And the dust around your doorway
has been pounded hard and smooth under your feet.
When you find yourself growing weary and bored,
when your eyes see only ruins,
and your heart is empty.
You may believe, in your exhaustion,
that this is truth, at last.
That the mystery has unraveled,
leaving no wilderness to explore or tame.
All secrets have been shared,
the frontier has dissolved.
Know then, with these thoughts,
you have been swallowed.
The warm belly of the beast
comforts with confining darkness
and lulls with rhythmic sounds
Murmuring to you,
Curl up and sleep,
just go to sleep.
Shake your head,
stretch your legs,
do not sleep now.
Remember what you know.
You swallowed the moon,
you hold it inside you.
Not as a magpie hoarding shiny things,
or wearing the moon for beauty
or bartering the moon for wealth.
You swallowed the moon for this moment.
When you will walk to the water’s edge,
open your mouth, release the moon
and let its light build you a pathway
across the wine dark sea.
©Skorda 2008
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Riots in Greece: From the International Herald Tribune
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