A notorious police unit shoots a car and kills a 20-year-old. Protests against police violence break out in Athens.
Athens – Athens city center is again the scene of protests against escalating police violence these days. After a 20-year-old died on Saturday (23.10.2021) from bullets from a police unit notorious for violence, demonstrations broke out again.
The police used tear gas and stun grenades against the demonstrators near the Exachia district, which is an anarchist stronghold in central Athens. Students from the surrounding universities, led by the strong left and the anarchist community, demanded justice for the shot Nikos Sempanis. Together with two other young Roma, Sampanis is said to have stolen a car for fun on Saturday evening before they were followed by the said police unit, which then opened fire.
When they realized that we do not “fish” in their challenges, throughout the course that accompanied us #mat, they said to start first …
Your state repression, violence & impunity will NOT pass! # περαμα pic.twitter.com/ecP6NzXY4Q
– Dimitris Liapis (@dsliapis) October 25, 2021
Greece: Judge orders seven police officers to be arrested
Police originally reported that they opened fire after the driver backed the stolen car into police officers. About 30 shots were fired at the car. A judge in Athens ordered the arrest of seven police officers for homicide after it was revealed that police did not report any injuries in the aftermath of the incident.
A 16-year-old passenger was hit in the stomach and is still in mortal danger in an Athens hospital. A 15-year-old passenger escaped unharmed. He hasn’t surrendered yet.
New protests against police violence in Greece
The incident sparked serious protests. Tuesday protests followed a night of street battles. Demonstrators threw Molotov cocktails from rooftops at the police, whereupon the police responded by firing various non-lethal weapons and violent strikes. After the riots on Monday night, left-wing groups reported that some members had been arrested and others had ended up in hospital.
According to local media reports, the Special Intervention Team (SIT), a police unit deployed by motorcycle to combat violent incidents, is responsible for the shooting in Perama, a suburb of Piraeus. It is believed that said unit switched its communications from radio to the Viber messaging app via smartphones to ensure that their communication remains secret.
Greek police officers concerned about self-regulation of individual units
This discovery worries a Greek police officer, who asks for anonymity owing to the situation, deeply. He told Vice World News that the switch to Viber was “natural to prevent supervisors and the media from hearing your orders and organization.”
“Today’s information that this unit used an encrypted messenger system instead of the radios, as is the correct course of action, is very annoying,” said the police officer. “This special operations unit operates through its own command and now we have learned that this command is issued in secret.” The officer also reports that the SIT unit received a new Viber message from its commanders on Tuesday: Stay away from Roma communities and only makes arrests with the consent of the central command.
More than 270,000 Roma, a distinct ethnic group speaking Romani or Sinte, live mainly in around 70 suburban settlements across the country. The Greek police have long been accused of brutality towards a community which, according to the Council of Europe, has long been denied the right to political representation in the region. (Lukas Zigo)
