Greek police beat one female photo reporter and a male journalist covering the raid in Exarxeia district of Athens. According to reports, riot police beat the photo-reporter on the back and pulled her by the hair, while she was covering the rally to the US Embassy tonight. A little later, the reporter was “harassed by 8 policemen on motorcycles, the famous DELTA units, he was injured on the hand and knee, while right after four policemen got off their motorcycles and pushed him on the ground.” Both reporters are working for the Greek section of VICE and were covering the riot police raid in Exarchia district, where strong police forces were deployed right after the rally to commemorate the dead of students’ Uprising of 1973 was concluded.
Update Nov 19/2014: The VICE journalists described their experience here (in Greek) Article: “Yesterday we were beaten by fascists in uniforms”.
Also mainstream MEGA TV reporter Irini Androulaki reported what she described “police provocative behavior.” She wrote on her Twitter account:
“Many thanks to police for hurling a stun grenade at my feet, while one policeman was showing to me a sticky finger.”
According to live blog website of VICE, “policemen on motorcycles have been driving around the streets of Exarchia bulling people returning from work and journalists covering the raid.”
To a female resident of Exarchia asking the police what was going on, police reportedly answered in … full respect “We’ll fuck you, whore!”
Video: showing riot police breaking the entrance of a house building allegedly seeking for …protesters??? They break in apparently without prosecutor’s presence or prosecutor’s order!
embedded by Embedded Video
YouTube Direkt
Residents tweet that there are hundreds of policemen apparently in a power show off.
According to VICE, a riot police squad broke the fridge of a mini market in Exarchia.
Other residents claim that the police was smashing building entrance doors and that residents were throwing stuff like flowerpots at the police form their balconies.
The raid started short after 8:30 pm, and police fired tear gas practically for no reason. Late in the evening, STAR TV reported that a group of 50-60 protesters moved from the rally in Ampelokipoi to Exarchia and started to hurl molotov cocktails and stones at riot policemen who followed them.
Exarchia district is famous for being the center of anarchists but tonight there was no reason for the police to raid the area, even if some mainstream websites have claimed that “anarchists had sought refugee in the area”.
According to latest information, police detained 15 and arrested 7 people.
There are still reports of “unprovoked police rampage” and police using stun grenades and teargas but KTG understands that there have not been any clashes in the area.
Earlier riot policemen attacked and fired teargas at a block of leftist party ANTARSYA and a bloc of anarchists as they were marching towards the US Embassy together with thousands of protesters who had joined the rally to commemorate the Polytechnic Students’ Uprising of 1973 (KTG-live blog here)
Detentions and Injuries during the rally and the Exarchia raid
73 detentions
10 arrests
Injuries: 7 protesters, 5 policemen
In Patras in Western Greece, protesters hurled molotov cocktail bombs and stones against riot policemen who answered with tear gas. Several protesters have been detained.
According to latest reports from Thessaloniki, police on motorcycles have entered the Aristoteleio University where students are still inside.
Thessaloniki – riot cops on motorbikes
PS Minister for Public Order and Citizen Protection Vassilis Kikilias may have an answer for the raid in Exarchia tomorrow… Oh, wait! Late in the evening, he said that “we did the necessary!” I assume the show off and rampage was aiming to scare the anarchists!
I’m 100% pro, Kikilias will announce tomorrow that he would order an internal inquiry to identify the policemen who attacked the reporters 🙂
