Pictures from the Greece riots
 

Boston Globe does it again...

2008 Greek riots - The Big Picture - Boston.com

Re: Pictures from Greece riots.

Hey, look... !

http://cache.boston.com/universal/si...9_17304265.jpg

Art imitates life imitates art...



(Well, in this case, it's commercial art. But, still!)

Number 7 is amazingly hot. Yum.

Also, that's are some amazing photography.

Also, that's kinda scary.

Apart from these amazing photos, I had been meaning to post something on these riots but didn't know where to start. I feel shocked but also strong from the reaction of the people to their government.

It makes me wonder about Portugal. We have been going through a very bad period too, in governmental terms, and there have been numerous protest marches for a couple of years now, for all kinds of reasons. It seems very close to home, what is happening in Greece.

Conflict can be devastating, but to see it happen so close, in Greece, makes me think that the Portuguese people could have it in them one day to fight back against the daily and enormous injustices, the corrupt and greedy politicians. All it takes is one trigger event...

It is scary but makes me hopeful in a weird way. Sometimes, the people need to make their voice be heard, and sometimes, it has to be through force. I hope the Greeks make it through this hardship and for the most part, come out of it the better for it.

Interesting. And yet kind of shocking how fast and far things have gone. I wonder as the economy becomes increasingly a global crisis what effect thats going to have on tempers. Will this spread? As LT points out Portugal's been having it's own issues of late. So have many other countries. Let's all hope this plays true the saying that "that doesn't kill you makes you stronger."

After seeing these pictures, its apparent that the rioters have long abandoned peaceful protest and demonstration. How do they hope to further their cause by targeting all police, government officials/buildings? How does rioting, burning and looting the homes and businesses of unafilliated civilians have anything to do with a dead teenager? I can only surmise that a few of these people are lashing out in fits of rage while the majority are just opportunists who like to break shit.

on the other hand, a recent history of sustained police brutality can get people a bit miffed. i would hope that were there such a climate of indiscriminate police brutality in the states that people would react, and strongly if need be.

but post wroldwar 2 greece was born of incredible violence that issued into a civil war, and has been plagued with the direct and indirect consequences of that history of massacre since. a string of heavy-handed governments. routine police brutality. you cannot do this sort of thing with impunity if you're a cop. sooner or later, there'll be hell to pay.

this is the same kind of scenario that triggered the riots in the parisian suburbs a few years ago--the paramilitary style police is trained to see the people as a Problem and do "deal with" problems with "maximum efficiency"---which can result in things like kids being thrown out windows while handcuffed (st denis) or asthmatic kids not being given their inhalers while in holding cells so they suffocate. this is particularly an issue in cities like paris and athens, which are also national capitals--so that local violence, from either the streets of the cops, becomes political, and nationally political, very quickly. whence the rationale for fine groups of folk like the crs.

it also appears that the press in both greece and france is in a sense more free than the american in that they do not simply capitulate before police attempts to commit violence off-camera.

o btw i dont know if you read french, but this is pretty remarkable:

http://www.lemonde.fr/europe/article...1993_3214.html

the gist of this article is that for a few minutes during a speech by the greek prime minister, a group of students turned up on camera.
they were able to do it because they temporarily took over a major television station and broadcast the action, during which they held up a sign (in the photo) part of which says: STOP WATCHING. GO OUT ONTO THE STREETS. they also demanded that everyone who had been arrested be released.

the prime minister later said that this was "beyond all limits"---that's right: in contemporary capitalism, anything that disrupts the top=down character of the media relay apparatus does surpass limits--but it's interesting to think about what those limits are.