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Greek demos spread to London
Kiran Randhawa8 Dec 2008
CHAOTIC scenes erupted at the Greek Embassy in London today as demonstrators burned the country's flag in protest over the killing of a teenager in Athens.
About 50 protesters in dark clothing and balaclavas took down the national flag, replaced it with a flag bearing an anarchists' logo and chanted in Greek: "The police are pigs and killers."
As officers attempted to put up barricades to make the Holland Park protest peaceful, two of the group ran out to police to stop them. After a scuffle both were handcuffed and arrested.
Detective Inspector David Morgan said: "It looks like they are planning to be here all day. We are trying to put up a pen for them to protest in and get them away from the steps of the building." The circumstances surrounding the death of Alexandros Grigoropoulos, 15, are disputed.
Two policemen in the often volatile central Athens district of Exarchia claimed they had come under attack on Saturday night by a group of about 30 youths, and that three warning shots and a stun grenade were fired when they sought out the group a few minutes later. But witnesses say the policeman intended to shoot the youths. The two policemen have been arrested and charged, one with murder and the other as an accomplice.
Rioting, much of it by self-styled anarchists, broke out across the country within hours. About 70 people, including 37 police, were injured.
The Greek police officers' association has apologised to the boy's family, and president Karolos Papoulias sent a telegram to his parents expressing his condolences.
In the port of Thessaloniki today, riot police fired tear gas at youths smashing shopfronts and throwing rocks at a police station. There were running battles between police and about 400 school students in Veria, about 40 miles west of Thessaloniki and there was also violence in the central city of Trikala.
In Athens, high school students blocked streets across the city, while dozens of youths were still barricaded at two university campuses. Under Greek law, the police are barred from entering university campuses.
Violence often breaks out between riot police and anarchists during demonstrations in Greece. Anarchist groups are also blamed for late-night firebombings of targets such as banks and diplomatic vehicles.
The anarchist movement partly traces its roots in the resistance to Greece's 1967-74 military dictatorship. The youths tend to have anti-capitalist and anti-establishment principles, and a long-running animosity to the police.
The conservative government of prime minister Costas Karamanlis is increasingly unpopular and has struggled to push through economic reforms.
In Berlin, 15 Greek youths occupied their country's consulate. Police said there had been no violence.
Reader views (14)
there are a lot of people spouting some pretty disgusting bigotted racist on here. all of whom need to reconsider quite what their jsutification for their views is ??
differing quanitities of melanin in a sub-dermal layer which defines skin colour ?
or is it simply the differing arrangement of characters within a sentence that create a rdifferent language?
or are you all simply so close minded biggotted and blind that you just do not see that diversity should be revelled in not rebuked, multiculturalism should be cherished not chastised.
stop plunging the depths of unity and start scratching the surface of variety!
the needs of the many outwiegh the needs of the few , maybe a few more people should remember this and stop whining about their "credit crunch" that has stopped them from buying their new BMW and start realising tat every three seconds f every single minute of every hour of every single day of our lives a child dies because they have so little money that they cannot afford to even eat !
PERSPECTIVE IS NEEDED I THINK !
WHAT REALLY MATTERS?
REST IN PEACE Alexandros , AND KNOW THAT YOUR DEATH HAS NOT GONE UNAVENGED !!!!
- Josh, Colchester, england, 14/12/2008 21:46
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Frank, You are an idiot useless getting fed by the people you call scums. People are protesting for a boy's death , they are better from mothers that act with sadistic violence to their babies.... these are the scums
- Angeliki, London, 09/12/2008 15:32
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This one goes to you Frank.
You forget you live free in your country because of Greek civilisation, you forget your language is based on Greek language, you forget you keep valuable pieces of Greek civilization in your museums!!!
YOU FORGET YOU BECOME A SHAME OF YOUR NATION WHEN YOU SPEND YOU HOLIDAYS IN GREECE!!!
WE HAVE THE RIGHT TO PROTEST AND SHOW OUR GREEK SOLIDARITY WHEREEVER THE HELL WE ARE!!
- Sissy, London, 09/12/2008 13:42
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Ok, I was there, possibly u r aware of the cops attitude against demonstrations in this country, they blocked the street as if there was some kind of terror threat, they prevented people from joining us, some 15-20 persons were stoped, when others went to see what's going on, the cops threw them outside the police line using violence and then the police even invaded technically greek soil to harass the people gathered at the embassy. Then they told them they would leave them go peacefully, but when the people gathered tried to walk away the police attacked them and threw 4 persons on the ground, arresting two of them for "voice anger" or something like that. its tragic. another two ere arrested before that for "offensive behavior" for chanting anti-police slofans in an anti-police demo!! this wasn't even of their business, since this was all in "greek" territory, ... britain is a police state.
- Malakas, London UK, 09/12/2008 10:13
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- Sam, London, England
You're an idiot.
How dare they break the law in our country. This has nothing to do with England. Get the scum the hell out this country. Who the hell do they think they are, rioting in our country. Vermin.
- Frank, Home Counties, England, 09/12/2008 09:48
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Cap, if I am not mistaken (and its not a cold war urban legend) a country's embassy is regarded as its soil. So the moment those protestors crossed the pavement and entered the embassy's garden, they were in Greece.
People in democracies are allowed to protest, whether some like it or not. Of course they must protest peacefully, without violating any laws.
Btw, I didn't like the behaviour some of your fellow country men and women in my town (Athens) last time they were there (champions league final) but asking them to leave the country, would have been too much.
I am suprised that nobody has replied to that "exit the country" comment sofar.
- Mitsos_Gr, York, UK, 09/12/2008 01:42
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When the people of this country will wake up? Social change demands protests! These young people should be an example for all of us! Unless you believe all is perfect and there is nothing to change...
- Liz, London, 08/12/2008 22:37
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Cap, democracy shouldn't feel threatened by a group of 20-50 people, and you are very fast to play the "exit the country" card.
Literally, the group was protesting in greek soil, they exited England by crossing the pavement and entered the embassy which is considered greek soil.
I am against the assault to the UK police officers (and against any form of violence), but you have to understand the extraordinary events that have been going on in Greece the past 3-4 days.
Ofc, I wasn't expecting anything different, it would damage Britain's image if they let the embassy to be taken over, so they didn't have any choice.
I am glad that the protesters were reasonable enough not to push it further and that the police wasn't overzealous.
cheers.
- Thanasis, Hampshire, 08/12/2008 20:31
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They should arrest the lot and deport all the illegals so they can protest at home.
- Squiz, Islington, 08/12/2008 20:14
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The whole situation is a bit edgy, there are thousands of Greek students in the UK, and our vast majority don't understand the "etiquette" of demonstrations in the UK (zero tolerance by the police, special permits etc). Greece is on fire, and us abroad feel a bit useless here. People want to do something, but we don't exactly know what.
So, I think, for the UK police its important to give a message to the rest of us and keep us away from London "hotspots", and just take the idea of demonstrations out of our minds and put fear.
Putting fear is what they are trying to do in Athens by letting the city burn for 3 days and hitting indiscriminately young school boys and girls, but it is not working quite well for them. The demonstrations grow in numbers, and the only thing which us from abroad can do, is try to explain to our friends, peers and colleagues that what is going on in Greece these days is not the work of an angry mob, but a whole generation is revolting in an attempt to establish a different identity.
- Thanasis, Hampshire, 08/12/2008 19:41
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This is England, not Greece.
If these people want to protest, let them exit England and protest in Greece.
I don't want this behaviour in my town
- Cap, london, 08/12/2008 17:36
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Sam, if you want to hold a demonstration outside an embassy you can, but will only be allowed to do so if it is held peacefully.
Some of the'demonstrators' in this case had already committed trespass to access the flag in question. They then committed an act of arson on the public highway.
Finally, they assaulted Police offices carrying out their lawful duty.
So, just who is using the aggresion here?
- Mike, London, 08/12/2008 17:28
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Sam, would you be a s quick to condemn the police for not keeping things under control if things got out of hand? The protesters wouldn't be stopped from making their protest.
- Rogan, Irving, 08/12/2008 16:44
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Putting up barricades? Hemming protestors into a pen? Doesn't sound much to me like the police are going to be making this a peaceful demonstration. Sounds more like aggression and coercion.
- Sam, London, England, 08/12/2008 16:00
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