While I was whatching the live video streams of the Athens protests yesterday some questions arose re the police and the square in general
First of all there appeared to be trash cans full of rubbish in the square. Given that most of the time protests in central Athens outside the parliament in Syntagma square end up with trash cans set on fire you have to wonder why the local council had not made sure all these bins were empty.
There appeared to be plenty of debris lying around in the form of broken bricks, where did all this material come from?
The police were in riot gear for the entire time. You have to assume they thought there was a very good chance that there could be violence yet they did very little preparation with regards to removing rubbish debris etc in the square the night before.
Tear gas seemed to be used indiscriminately, in other words the police were using the tear gas on peaceful protesters and stone throwing youths in equal measure.
No attempt was made to arrest any of the youths.
When police were not present in the square everything was peaceful
The stone throwing youths numbered around 50 maximum
Okay, so that is my general thoughts I also wrote down a little snapshot of the day from 15.00 until 18.35.
15.00 Police in full riot gear standing in the middle of side streets leading into Syntagma square. They seem to be serving no purpose except to be targets for the stone throwing youths. Tear gas returned to stone throwing youths.
15.10 Police in full riot gear surround square and slowly advance. No clue as to purpose of these moves
15.10 Police in full riot gear advancing towards peaceful protesters, tear gas used.
15.10 Peaceful protesters sit down on edge of square in front of police in full riot gear
15.29 Tear gas launched into crowd of peaceful protesters. Crowd may have been rushed by police immediately before
15.30 Tear gas enters the camp of the indignants
15.31 Petrol bomb thrown out of square towards police. It seems like the police in full riot gear and the stone throwing youths are some mis behaving children while the peaceful protesters are the adults.
No effort is made by the police in full riot gear to separate the stone throwing youths from the peaceful protesters
15.40 Police in full riot gear seen in the middle of the crowd surrounding Syntagma square. Given that the police in full riot gear are the target of the protests the police could be endangering the safety of the peaceful protesters by positioning themselves in the centre of the crowds
15.40 Stone throwing youths start throwing stones and debris at the police in the crowd. Some of the peaceful protesters could have been struck
15.41 Huge clouds of tear gas seen at the corners of Syntagma square.
16.02 What looks like to be an outside broadcast vehicle for television is in fire. Not clear how it started. Unusual antennas in van, no dishes evident. No TV channel logos visible or logos of any kind on the van. Antennas on van look like those used for mobile phones
16.17 No evidence of police (in riot gear or police in general) presence in the square on any of the video feeds. Everything is peaceful. No crowds in front of the parliament, many people in square
16.24 People standing peacefully in front of parliament, police arrive, tear gas used, not clear on who
16.25 Police in full riot gear go back towards the parliament
16.26 Stone throwing youths throws stones at police in full riot gear as they stand
16.44 Police in full riot gear throw tear gas into crowd from steps of parliament. Stone throwing youths throw stones at police in full riot gear
Another observation, the police at no point during the day make any attempt to arrest any of the youths
17.06 Police are directly in front of youths throwing stones but no attempt made to arrest them
17.41 Police in centre of square, extensive use of tear gas on peaceful protesters. Police in full riot gear follow youths into peaceful crowd
18.00 Back to normal in Syntagma square, no police presence, no violence
18.12 Still no police presence, completely peaceful, the children have left, only adults left
18.35 Police in full riot gear gather in front of parliament
One final observation. The police in full riot gear appeared to be the only target on the stone throwing youths. When the police in full riot gear did not approach the square things were completely peaceful.
At the start of the day the police in full riot gear were entering the square and then leaving, entering and leaving with no apparent reason. This antagonised the stone throwing youths.
I am not condoning the stone throwing youths but the presence of police in full riot gear seemed to incite the youths to throw stones at them. When the police in full riot gear left the square things were completely, completely calm.
There appeared to be no reason for the police to be in full riot gear and to be surround the square. Nothing had happened. However once they were there the youths threw stones and the police immediately retaliated with tear gas and made zero attempt to arrest the stone throwers.
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