This is what happens when you fire tear gas canisters at range of 10m or less., originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.
Whilst the mainstream media here in Greece has been having a feeding frenzy with the violent scenes in central Athens and talk of murder attempts on the dean of the university of Athens many other similarly deplorable acts of violence have not garnered such coverage. Three trade unionists are currently in hospital one with serious head injuries after being rammed by motorcycle units as part of the police new crowd control tactics first used in the Tehran protests (see video). Also pictures have emerged of the same officers wildly waving their service pistol in the air in an attempt to intimidate protesters (see picture).
I myself was also hit by a fragment of tear gas canister fired at point blank range into a crowd of 200 hundred or so marchers who had been "kettled" by the riot police here in Thessaloniki. I got off lightly with just a wound to the leg which just needed a few stitches, others, however, suffered more serious injuries caused in exactly the same way. Not that this stopped officer punching and kicking those on the ground once they'd gained the upper hand.
The 100 or so young people taken in for questioning were simply picked at random, unlucky enough to be in the middle of the march.
Minister of the protection of the citizen(The new Orwellian term for law and order) said on his Twitter page that he had zero tolerance for anyone breaking the law, whoever they are. Still, he'll be gone in a couple of years whereas those policemen who broke the law today will probably retire with a pension.
1 comment:
turns out the dean in athens wasn't beaten at all, on the opposite it was the demonstrators that helped him out while he was suffering due to his heart condition, there are also photos of the dean at http://athens.indymedia.org/front.php3?lang=el&article_id=1202290 leaving the school, apparently in a bad mood but not injured at all. seems more like a media lie to turn people's view against the protests.
There are also some students claiming they met with the dean on his way out and he wasn't beaten at tvxs.gr and athens.indymedia.org. The mass media are trying to portay demonstrators as irrational violent vandals, we should nt reproduce such claims without doublechecking the facts, with alternative sources which some times, and certainly in greece, are doing a much better work, and surely closer to the pragmatic reality.
Other than that, its really good work you do and very helpful and informative for a greek student in the movement such as myself to read how a person from a different origin, background etc sees this situation with an honest and from the inside view, sensitive to whats the spirit like out in the streets, keep it up!
sgn
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