Unjustified police attack on 30.000 people

Unjustified police attack on 30.000 people

As the Athenian newspaper "Efimerida ton Syntakton" writes today, by an unrivaled verdict, the politicians of "Golden Dawn", former MPs, were convicted on Wednesday as members of a criminal organization for systematic violence against foreigners, minorities and dissidents, and for the group murder of a leftist.

Raw footage of the two cameras by award-winning Greek documentary filmmaker Yorgos Avgeropoulos confirms the fact that the police attacked for no reason a mass gathering of the civic left that was seen before the court stretching along one of the largest boulevard in Athens, the Athens paper writes.

Interior Minister Michalis Chrisochoidis, from the ruling conservative New Democracy party, claimed that the police intervened against tens of thousands of people, only after "600 people attacked them by throwing 150 'Molotov cocktails'".

However, the video shows something else: that there is no "attack", but that from a very dense and peaceful mass of anti-fascists who approvingly call for a verdict, only a few plastic water bottles and plastic coffee cups were thrown up - seven actually, as can be counted in the picture.

Armored police, apparently ready for action and sheltered behind a row of buses parked in front of the court, responded with lightning speed with tear gas and a water cannon, causing chaos.

"On the historic day of the celebration of democracy, the leadership of the Ministry of Civil Protection (Interior) tried to tarnish the anti-fascist victory," the Athens paper writes.

"Acting in an organized and planned manner, they disbanded the magnificent rally in front of the Court of Appeals, a few seconds after the verdict against 'Golden Dawn'," reads the article stating the number of the rally, halved to 15.000 in most media.

Documentary filmmaker and journalist Yorgos Avgeropoulos asked the Greek authorities in the text along with his video: "Shouldn't they be held accountable for what they say? Shouldn't there be protection of the society from false news that comes as they please," and pointed out that "it is necessary to stop the rhetoric of 'trampism' that has poisoned the planet."

"Not everyone can say what they want, especially when they hold a public position and speak publicly. Not everyone can say whatever they want, especially about such an important political event in a public place, with thousands of eyewitnesses and hundreds of cameras," the documentary filmmaker said, assessing that the condemnation of the "Golden Dawn" is a historic decision for Greece and Europe.

Avgeropoulos wrote that "we live in a time when (US President Donald) Trump most brazenly launched a 'school' according to which everything that comes to mind is said from a position of power, without any evidence or with incorrect data, which presents a lie as true, which has been imitated by government officials around the world".

Police reaction to bottles of water and coffee cups "triggered the conflict. It was a disproportionate, oversensitive and phobic reaction," he wrote.

Avgeropoulos said that "it seemed as if the forces of order were looking for an excuse to break up a peaceful gathering..., as if someone was saying to thousands of demonstrators: 'Okay! Enough, you celebrated! Go home now'", and he responded to the minister's statement with a proverb: "A lie has no legs".

According to the three-minute video, the celebration of the verdict lasted for a full 42 seconds, and then the people were scattered with tear gas and water.