Greece’s public order impasse stems from the confluence of two very serious problems – the inadequate training of police officers and the public’s very ambivalent attitude toward youthful violence. Each problem alone would be dangerous; the two together are disastrous. We saw this most starkly 11 months ago, when a police officer on patrol in Exarchia shot and killed a teenager, sparking days of riots that brought central Athens to the brink of anarchy as the police heeded orders to let the protests rage without impediment.

The trigger-happy police officer, who goes on trial with his patrol partner on December 15, appears to have been a burned-out veteran of the Exarchia police station who, obviously, should have been rotated out of the area years earlier. The incident brought to light the lapses in the psychological evaluation and inadequate training of police officers. The reaction by school students and by battle-hardened self-proclaimed anti-establishment types was only to be expected after the death of the 15-year-old boy. What was just slightly less predictable was that the conservative government at the time would order riot squads to stand aside and let the protesters burn and loot their way across Athens. The riot squads are the best-trained units of the police force and, with regular experience of street battles, have both the training and the cool-headedness to keep things under control. Ordering them to stand back destroyed their morale, encouraged extremists to raise the level of violence and torpedoed the conservatives’ credibility with their core constituency: the good burghers who vote for a party expecting it to ensure law and order.

The New Democracy government fell in the October elections, but its mishandling of December’s crisis, as well as its weakening of the anti-terrorism squad, resulted in a spike in terrorist activity that is strikingly evident in the time line that we present on pages 4-5. And this upsurge in murderous violence is very much with us. The government’s passivity in December was borne out of a terror of being accused of authoritarianism by the left-wing opposition parties and news media. Citizens’ Protection Minister Michalis Chrysochoidis picked up the masked youths’ gauntlet just days after the PASOK government was sworn in, and just a day after troublemakers rampaged through parts of the center again. One of the new government’s most experienced members, Chrysochoidis oversaw the dismantling of the November 17 gang in 2003. He argues that the hooded youths and the terrorist gangs are closely related, and he has taken the fight to them. After the inertia of the previous administration encouraged the anti-establishment buildup, the crackdown has provoked the predictable but very extreme reaction.

It is clear that much of the new government’s standing will depend on how it manages to curb the violence. Unfortunately, this has prompted some opposition parties to treat the government as if it were a dictatorship and Chrysochoidis some crackpot whose motive was to destroy civil liberties rather than someone trying to safeguard liberties by imposing the law. There are even suggestions that members of his own party would prefer that Chrysochoidis not stir up the hornets’ nest, forgetting that the hornets that were allowed to fatten undisturbed are now big enough to constitute a great and unpredictable threat.

Greece has been accustomed to street violence as a rite of passage for disaffected or self-aggrandizing youths. But the poison of violence spreads very easily and begets more violence. The government must recruit and train police officers so that they are up to the challenges that they face. All political parties, professional groups, news media and citizens must act in unison and drive home the message that though it is the government’s responsibility to maintain order, it is everyone’s right to enjoy peace and security – and an obligation to demand them.

16-10-2009	23-10-2009	30-10-2009