Police in Chania, Crete, fined an elderly needy man with 300 euros for not wearing a mask. The man was on his way to a local soup kitchen and was holding the mask instead of wearing it as the lockdown rules provide.
Together with his 66-year-old wife, the 61-year-old man lives in an abandoned house without electricity and water.
The incident was reported to local newspaper Chaniotika Nea by neighbors of the couple who could not believe what had happened.
“I had the mask in my hand, I was not wearing it. But 300 euros? Where will I find such an amount to pay the fine?” the 61-year-old man told reporters of the newspaper who visited him.
“You can see the conditions in which we live,” he said and showed them around.
“The man and his wife live in an abandoned house, without electricity, without water, it drips rainwater from everywhere. Neighbors offer them a meal. They are peaceful, they do not disturb anyone, they sit on the bench outside the house or they will go to the soup kitchen. The man had the mask in his hand, they could have made a recommendation, not impose a fine of 300 euros,” a resident of the area in Chania told the newspaper.
The house gets flooded every time it rains, the man gets water from the Church of Agios Charalambos, and food from the Splantzia soup kitchen, Chaniotika Nea noted.
It is not the first time, people in need or defenseless elderly become an easy target for juicy fines.
During the first lockdown, homeless in Crete and Thessaloniki were fined for “unnecessary movement,” that is for being outside “home” without a permit form.
On the first day of the November lockdown and the mandatory use of mask in- and outdoors, a policeman on the island of Corfu fined a 80-year-old man with 150 euros for not properly wearing the mask. Grandpa’s nose was not covered.
The incident took place in front of other passerby who apodokimzw the policeman. Some shot a picture and posted it social media. The incident triggered an outrage in the local community and the social media.
According to reports, the grandpa started to cry saying “where will I find the money?”
Also in this case, locals reportedly said that police could have made a recommendation and not impose a fine.
Ultimately the fine was erased after the intervention by a local MP from ruling New Democracy.
No compassion or mercy here, only rigid laws! Shame!
What is this world coming to? Authoritarians are for protecting the people while exercising common sense, compassion and empathy!
Of course masks must be worn over the mouth and nose otherwise there is no point in having it on but I see many many people with a mask under their nose,thats stuoid because they may spread it or catch as they breath in or out.We know that a mask only helps prevent this deadly virus,doesnt stop it but its surely the best that we can do combined with distancing so as to help prevent the spread of it.The ones with it under their nose are often the deniers and or defiers,being old and in dificult stuations is not an excuse to act recklessly.Old or young must do everything in their power to stop Greece becoming another Italy,Spain,UK,Holland and others before too many of us are shedding tears and saying GOODBYE to our loved ones.
Wasn’t it Varoufakis who said: The weak suffer what they must? It is the same all over, less freedom, more oppression. The elite’s “system” takes 95%, the rest squabble over what is left.
Mr Varoufakis knows nothing about the weak or suffering,he is a rich man,I dont know of any occasion that he has donated any monies from his hugely excessive 40.00 a time fee for any any of his lectures about world economy.There are two issues in this story which should not be confused,the mans basic human rights have been violated by the local council who have not provided him with a suitable home,the other which is mainly what the story was about is..the man was carrying his mask instead of wearing it..wearing it is the law at the moment so as to help protect us all.I can cry over his very sad living conditions but not his difiance of the law.
Did Marx or Lenin donate all of their money to the poor too?
One’s ideologies do not guide their personal finances as a means towards resolve. Good grief.
Mind you, when the top 1% own half of the world’s wealth, one doesn’t have to be a socialist to scream that something stinks.
If you want to think this way, then you had better ask what have Merkel, Schulz, Juncker and Verhofstadt PERSONALLY done for all the desperate refugees in the EU? Most likely NOTHING!
Sir, I do ask that question,and not only for refugees but I ask all of the wealthy humans on this planet what they are doing for all those who are in dire need and organisations who are trying to help them and for the small children and babies who are taken into the A&E departments everyday in the UK suffering with hunger and malnutrition as a direct result of poverty while nurses stare in disbelief as these babies stuff part of the food given to them by the nurses down their nappies so that they will be able to eat something later when there is nothing for their mother to give them.Good Grief Sir
In all fairness, they reversed the charge when they saw he was unable to pay. What other western nation would extend such forgiveness. I found this to be admirable.
At the same time, those who are not wearing a mask must not be allowed to spread COVID and it is these laws that were made to save lives. This has nothing to do with the haves or have nots.
In the town of Giannitsa police fined homeless for violating lockdown with “unnecessary movement,” so this
“great nation forgiveness” is even.