Non-Greek recruits for police?
As more details emerged yesterday of a proclamation by the Revolutionary Struggle terror group in which it presents police officers as legitimate targets, unionists told Kathimerini yesterday that they would welcome non-Greeks into the force as a way of revamping its image. The statement by the extremist organization, published in yesterday’s Pontiki weekly newspaper, called on all officers to quit their jobs. Ominously, the group also mentioned the special guard Epaminondas Korkoneas who shot and killed teenager Alexis Grigoropoulos in Exarchia last month, saying «we are waiting for him to join us soon.» The urban terrorist organization said that it was responsible for shooting at police on December 23 and January 5. In its statement, the group claims to represent a wave of public anger against the police. Morale within the force appears to be at an all-time low following the shootings and December’s unrest. It was suggested yesterday that one way of improving the police’s image and how some members of the public see officers would be to induct migrants living in Greece into law enforcement. «The children of migrants, the so-called second generation, study at Greek schools and universities – why are they excluded from police academies and other public posts?» Christos Fotopoulos, the head of the Panhellenic Confederation of Police Officers (POASY), told Kathimerini. «As long as the state refuses to deal with the new reality, there will be more incidents of racism and the police will suffer the consequences when others are actually to blame.» However, a survey conducted in 2004 by POASY and the Antigone research organization found the majority of some 46,000 officers in the force were against the idea of non-Greek recruits.
