The accussations of Chairwoman of Greek Communist Party, Aleka Papariga, surely shocked the Greek government. Then it was the first time a respectable party leader, a member of the Parliament spoke out loud what it has been rumour since quite some time. Speaking to private Mega television, Papariga spoke of ‘an organized plan’ and ‘links between the police and the hooded’ rioters.
Papariga claimed two examples off the incidents of last Thurday. That “a group of police officers changed their clothes into those of ‘hoodies’ at Santarosa Street in downtown Athens” and that also “men wearing hoods were seen outside the police headquarters. Are they hoodies with police links or policemen dressed as hoodies?” She also accused the far-right party LAOS for ‘having links with certain circles within the police’.
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Papariga’s accusations prompted the reaction of the Minister of Citizens’ Protection, Christos Papoutsis, who urged her to give evidence to the prosecutor. Papoutsis described Papariga’s accusations as ‘extreme serious charges’ and ordered an internal investigation. In a statement he assured that the “Greek police is committed to strict compliance with the Constitution and laws of the State.”
During the protests on Thursday a group of hoods wearing men attacked protesters of KKE’s union PAME. There has been visual material (pictures, footage) showing that the attackers were using police clubs and that they even fired tear gas. PAME claimed also that they had caught some ‘hoodies’ with police IDs.
Quite a number of KKE offices across the country were target of attacks last night. One member was also beaten.
KKE’s accusations are also to be read on the official newspaper Rizospastis but in …Greek.
Thursday pictures
There has been always a question as to why the Police ‘allows’ the “hoodies” to destroy downtown Athens at every protest.
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If the police are indeed in the anarchist blocks, it’s not that the anarchists want them there. The anarchists hate the police, it’s against their whole ideology. And it’s obvious that the anarchists on the October 19th protest numbered at least 2,000 to 3,000. I was there, they were everywhere. So obviously they are not all police.
Plus, you always get police in anarchist demos around the world. They are plainclothes cops almost always present. So it doesn’t surprise me that they find these “hooded” ones with police IDs from time to time. If the police are meeting with “hooded” ones it’s probably because they are undercovers.
Who knows why the police don’t stop it. It might be because they don’t want larger demos to form, or maybe they are scared. On October 19th, things were reaching a fever pitch, and forcefully intervening seemed kind of insane. The police are probably confident that these anarchist demos will never actually result in them overtaking the parliament, so they get the violence (keeping other demonstrators from showing up) without the risk of actually having some angry mob beating MPs.
Also, that type of police baton you can buy in certain shops. Doesn’t necessarily mean that “hooded” guy is a cop.
Go to youtube. Watch videos from the G8 summit in Genoa in 2001 about the “hoodies” there. Similarities are purely coincidental and not intended by the author 😉
And you will find some more vids from other european countries.
They are also at any demonstration in Germany. Here they are called the “black block “. Their task is to turn peaceful protests into violent confrontations. To break up the demonstrations, so that people stay at home in the future. Out of fear or because they don’t want have to do anything with violence …
also here they are called ‘the black block’. Intersting enough I heard on TV on Thursday that there a group of protesting ‘anti-authorians’ but it looks that they apparently they were not involved in the riots and clashes.
Do they “allow” them or do they simply get away before the police can catch them? It’s the classic fast light infantry vs slow heavy infantry paradox. Perhaps the police are not as omnipotent as you think?
We have seen often ‘hoodies’ literarally destroying downtown Athens while there is no police intervention. That’s the reason of the rumours. It’s a good question why well equipped (clubs, tear gas, shields, protesting uniforms, helmets) riot policemen do not intervene in stopping men dressed in jeans and t-shirts and hoods..
Maybe some (but certainly not all, as others have pointed out that would require thousands of undercovers) are agents provocateur, but I see your line of thinking a lot (that if the police don’t do something, it must be intentional) and have several times when that argument is made had direct personal knowledge that it is false.
The police have a lot of equipment, and that may be why they don’t intervene sometimes- they aren’t very fast! They depend on a very strong Command & Control apparatus also, and maintaining formation. If a group of police tried to chase people who are faster because they’re not carrying much, then their formation disintegrates and they’re vulnerable. How would you like to see them run a few blocks, lose formation and get isolated, and get hospitalized by ten times as many angry locals? They care about their own hides far more than a bunch of shops!
Bravo! Great to see the truth starting to come out (at least in your country), excellent blog posting!
I think there are police in some black blocks, but they r minority. sometimes they escalate in tactical good positions, where its better for other police units to controle the mob. it´s fun that some “communists” (mostly from communist party) talking about this conspiracy shit in front of some black bloc activits, who knows it better. i was at a presentation of an pame/kke-activist here in germany, he was friendly but totally paranoid und elitist. don´t know what really happened there at syntagma, but i know that talking about provocateurs and the elitist behavior of some communist-party members…
i hope that they will manage the conflict and fight altogether!
Brilliant front: Stalinists together with “lazy” police orchestered by media attack the people of neighborhood-, Syntagma-Assemblies and Aganaktisméni.
The anarchists together with radical commies came later or had no weapons at this point and later on helped against murderous “communist” attacks and needed molotov to stop the stalinists.
The press creates out of KNAT skullcrushers with helmets and sticks (who try to take over the struggle by blocking off all the others who came the months before) peaceful protesters who get attacked by hooded.
In your linked rizospastis article a Den Plirono activist is shown as the “boss of the hooded”
http://www.occupiedlondon.org/blog/2011/10/22/resolution-by-the-popular-assembly-of-syntagma-square-21102011/