Impunity stokes violence
Many weeks have passed since former New Democracy minister Costis Hatzidakis was attacked by protesters in central Athens and police have yet to locate the culprits, even though the image of their faces was clearly captured by cameras recording the events during the December 2010 mass protest rally.
When a state and its justice mechanism ignore such instances and fail to do their duty to catch the criminals, it comes as no surprise that unlawfulness and disorder continue to spread to many different areas of society. The impunity of one group stokes the fires of others, whether they are justified in their anger or not, and makes them believe that violence is indeed one way to solve its problems.
The message sent by the state when police release a protester found to be wielding weapons is released is even more warped and says that everything is allowed.
With examples like these, we really should not be surprised by some of the occurrences of violence we are witness to, nor should we be surprised when the violence escalates if law and order are not imposed once more.
