We deserve better than this

Just when I thought the reputation of the police in Greece couldn't fall any lower this video surfaced in the local media. It shows two suspects being beaten and forced to beat each other by a sadistic cop in some sick game that one of his colleagues videoed on his mobile phone. This is not an isolated incident, there are have too many such public examples of such behaviour. Also, I've many friends who've suffered similar treatment the hands of the "law and order" community for being in the "wrong place, at the wrong time" or simply demanding their rights as citizens from these uniformed thugs.



In November I wrote about a similar case of a Cypriot student beaten to a pulp for "resisting arrest" (click here). In reality, his crime was simply walking by a bunch of bored, vindictive plain clothes police who were eager for revenge after failing to deal with rioters. In that case TV footage shows that the cops' uniformed superiors sat by idly and let the boot boys get on with their work (click here).

I'm sure many of you would say that; "you'd cry a different tune if you needed the police's help." Well, the problem is that when they are needed for the boring, routine work of catching criminals their best efforts range from ineffective to non-existent. Once again, bitter personal experience of me and my friends , not to mention the cases highlighted in the media (click here) show that crime detection is far less important than "public order", a euphemism for the protection of those in power.

Click here to see more on this in English.