Greek Police

September 22, 2007 8:33 AM

Teacher Dude takes photos of Greek riot police who beat him up. Police say he wasn't allowed to photograph them without accreditation.
posted by Lezzles (35 comments total)

He shouldn't have worn that dress.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 8:36 AM on September 22, 2007

I'm getting a little bored with OutrageFilter.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 8:40 AM on September 22, 2007 [3 favorites]

No way can you justify stickin' your head under the sheets and ignorin' the world out there, man! You're part of the problem!
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 8:41 AM on September 22, 2007 [1 favorite]

That's what happens when you fuck a stranger in the ass, Larry.
posted by jsavimbi at 8:43 AM on September 22, 2007

Taking pictures of police forces without permission? Thats at least a beating right there. Asshole deserved whatever he got for violating The Rules like that. Good citizens follow The Rules or they get the baton.

So, yeah, its good to know that America isn't the only country with nutty authoritarians.
posted by Avenger at 8:56 AM on September 22, 2007

Shit, in America he might've been tasered to death.

...that that is something that can be legitimately said makes me want to go slash my wrists.
posted by Pope Guilty at 8:57 AM on September 22, 2007

I don't know what is scarier; that a police officer is so unaware of basic rules governing conduct in public spaces or the fact that they feel that they can impose whatever rule they want, at a whim.

Among ordinary decent policeman one will always find a number of self-righteous, self-important idiots who hide their colossal insecurities behind their uniform while exercising their power trip with their batons, the fetish of what they are afraid of not having. They capitalize on people NOT protesting their abuses, because they think they will never get caught anyway, as people aren't but sheep aren't they ?

Unfortunately the concept of "asserting and exercising a right" is unknow to them as they are often faced with binary choice, the one they were trained to handle: if it look menacious, attack otherwise rest and wait orders.. While this may have some sense when dealing with hooligans, not every protester is a hooligan no matter how irritating they might be.

But while it is possible to find extremely simple people among the troopers, the question remains : why did the officiers, who must know better, mix emotionally unstable and incompetent people with protesters ? If a cop abuses his power, it's primarily a failure of his commanding officiers.
posted by elpapacito at 8:59 AM on September 22, 2007

On this photo he has captioned an officer with an upside-down shield as "Not the brightest tool in the shed." Oooh total burn!

Of course this phrase is not to be confused with the similarly cutting metaphoric put-down: "Not the sharpest crayon in the box."

(ie, tools = sharp; crayons = bright. Capiche?)
posted by miss lynnster at 9:12 AM on September 22, 2007

I'm getting a little bored with OutrageFilter.

Hey bro, can we tase him?
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 9:22 AM on September 22, 2007 [1 favorite]

On this photo he has captioned an officer with an upside-down shield as "Not the brightest tool in the shed." Oooh total burn!

Of course this phrase is not to be confused with the similarly cutting metaphoric put-down: "Not the sharpest crayon in the box."

These two versions are pretty common in england, and properly used. A bright tool is a shiny one, a useful and well cared for tool, as opposed to a dull and useless rusty one. Sharp crayons are equally to be desired, for how else are you to draw precise and clear lines? A dull or even thick (pointed) crayon is no good to anyone, unless you're a small child who's drawing consists of mad smearing of crayon on everything and everyone standing still.

It's much more fun when it's a subtle insult...
posted by ArkhanJG at 9:43 AM on September 22, 2007

bro, can we tase him?

"Please, God, if you love us, let that meme die."
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 9:49 AM on September 22, 2007

His biggest problem though is that he's used to British Police, who are legendary for their ability to ignore minor infractions and insults going on under their nose (unless you're irish, in which case you get a beating or shot, or possibly both)

Greek riot police do not take kindly to protestors, and it's not the first time they've administered random beatings to people they don't like the look of.
http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2007/02/354721.shtml

Hell, they even tear-gas their own protesting police and civil servants:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3176294.stm

Or how about them beating teenage albanian immigrants?
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=444_1182059861
posted by ArkhanJG at 9:53 AM on September 22, 2007

From the photos of his injuries it looks like they could have done more damage with soap and water. When will cops learn that these two things are the hippie’s real natural enemies? Tasering can lead to spontaneous immolation from the various grease and gas byproducts that surround the hippie specimen (patchouli I hear is incredibly flammable, more so than Brute). Additionally there is the risk of martyrdom, a particularly insidious form of inanity exaltation. A clean hippie on the other hand is just some guy with bad hair and a slow car.
posted by MapGuy at 9:57 AM on September 22, 2007

Ever consider a career in the riot police Mapguy?
posted by Lezzles at 10:13 AM on September 22, 2007 [3 favorites]

He wasn't "asking for it", and I think my anti-police bona fides are pretty strong, but dude did not sustain a "beating."
posted by Kwantsar at 10:14 AM on September 22, 2007

στάση poy εγώ, bro
posted by Flashman at 10:19 AM on September 22, 2007 [1 favorite]

dude did not sustain a "beating."

Please define your version of a beating, as I would think most reasonable people would agree this qualifies as a beating:

I suffered a dislocated shoulder, fractured nose and multiple cuts and bruising for taking these photos
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 10:22 AM on September 22, 2007 [1 favorite]

Is there evidence of any of that? His nose looks fine, and he's got a couple of faint strawberries on his face. I've seen more severe injuries at youth softball games.

People sustain far, far worse (every day) at the hands of police.
posted by Kwantsar at 10:28 AM on September 22, 2007

This is old. If you're going to do random OutrageFilter about everyday things like this, then you should at least make the post in a timely fashion.
posted by Ethereal Bligh at 10:29 AM on September 22, 2007

Oh, wow, I know him. We met a couple of times when I still lived in Thessaloniki. Nice guy. Very nice. I'm sorry this happened to him, but I'm glad he's getting local publicity about it.

mapguy, wtf?
posted by taz at 10:48 AM on September 22, 2007

September 8th, 2007 is old news? Not to me it isn't.
posted by nickyskye at 10:50 AM on September 22, 2007

Shit, in America he might've been tasered to death.

...that that is something that can be legitimately said makes me want to go slash my wrists.

Move on.
posted by C17H19NO3 at 10:52 AM on September 22, 2007

People sustain far, far worse (every day) at the hands of police.

Are you saying a dislocated shoulder, fractured nose, cuts and bruises do not constitute a beating, yes or no?

From your comment I'm genuinely curious where you draw the line, perhaps throw in a broken jaw, an impacted skull or a crushed patella, that sort of thing.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 11:45 AM on September 22, 2007

“Move on.”

Well, I'm not sure what “move on” is intended to mean, but if it's dismissive, I'll agree. That someone is tasered to death by the police is enough to push one to suicide? Really? Are people so unaware of the true scope of misery and injustice in the world that something like this comes as an existential shock?
posted by Ethereal Bligh at 11:45 AM on September 22, 2007

Would someone explain why the word "Police" is in English while all other writing is in Greek?
posted by Cranberry at 12:41 PM on September 22, 2007

Cranberry, as far as I know, it's pretty much so that everyone knows it's The Police, whether they can read/understand Greek or not.
posted by taz at 1:10 PM on September 22, 2007

Mapguy, are you channeling your inner Cartman? It's not pretty.
posted by sebastienbailard at 1:23 PM on September 22, 2007

On this photo he has captioned an officer with an upside-down shield as "Not the brightest tool in the shed." Oooh total burn!

Of course this phrase is not to be confused with the similarly cutting metaphoric put-down: "Not the sharpest crayon in the box."

(ie, tools = sharp; crayons = bright. Capiche?)
posted by miss lynnster at 10:12 AM on September 22

Actually I'm kind of partial to "Not the brightest bulb in the chandelier". But the crayon thing proves your point too. The tragic poorly mixed metaphor.
posted by Eekacat at 1:32 PM on September 22, 2007

"Please, God, if you love us, let that meme die."

You were there in 2000 and 2004. God don't love us.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 2:59 PM on September 22, 2007

A clean hippie on the other hand is just some guy with bad hair and a slow car.

You're so insanely wrong I don't even know where to begin.

The true enemy of a hippy is not soap and water - nor the disembodied floating talking head of Richard Nixon. Hippys actually love soap and water. They're very hedonistic. Most of the hippies I've known have dozens of kinds of elaborate, all natural soaps and the often take long, luxurious baths with them.

You just think hippies are dirty because you've only seen them in the wild. They're always digging up roots and berries with which to make their fancy soaps.

No, the true enemy of the hippy is cold, hard science and steely logic. Flowcharts, orgcharts, spreadsheets, histograms, heatmaps. I carry around a PocketRef (electronics edition) which is great for warding off hippies. I can just open it to any page at random, and it'll say something like "TABLE OF COLOR MARKINGS FOR THROUGH-HOLE RESISTORS" and the hippy will say something like "DUDE BRO DON'T PAGE ME" and before you know it they're all running off to go pick more nuts and berries and play with their twigs or some shit.

'Cause, y'know, this universe would never allow a hippy that ever did anything important or changed the world around you.

Like, say, successfully inventing and mass-marketing the world's first personal computer.

Or forever changing the world of physics.

Or lingustics.

Or, hell, how about finance and business?

Yeah, screw those empty-headed no-goodnik hippy scumfucks. Selfish, destructive - a drain on society! They won't never amount to nothin', ever!

Idiot.
posted by loquacious at 4:09 PM on September 22, 2007 [5 favorites]

Blazecock Pileon writes "Are you saying a dislocated shoulder, fractured nose, cuts and bruises do not constitute a beating, yes or no?

"From your comment I'm genuinely curious where you draw the line, perhaps throw in a broken jaw, an impacted skull or a crushed patella, that sort of thing."

Only major organ failure or death, silly.
posted by orthogonality at 4:26 PM on September 22, 2007

This doesn't seem like a 'bad seed' sort of situation; assuming it was a rogue asshole officer who wanted to beat down on a guy, the rest of his cohorts did nothing to stop him. The rule of law is not being protected here.

I'm not a cophater, either. Some, but not all, police officers are violent dicks who beat people. Some, but not all, police officers are adhere to the rule of law and conduct their jobs in a perfectly appropriate manner. The Greek police system appears to be broken, is all, allowing the violent dicks to operate with impunity.

(also the platonic ideal, i.e. stereotype, of a hippy doesn't exist anywhere, just like the platonic ideal of a cop doesn't exist anywhere, like the platonic ideal of ____ doesn't exist anywhere)
posted by maus at 4:29 PM on September 22, 2007

Loquacious: Oh no, no, no you give one of those Richards back, and leave the Noam out of this.

Man you sound tense, you O.K.? Must be out of the kind sticky. Don’t get all worked up and go to the bridge just yet. Get yourself down to the Squat and Gobble II go one block west and just breathe it in. Or book the Green Turtle up the coast, or head out to Smiley's in Bolinas you will feel better, no really. Or just crank up the Bob and do what you do (nice bus). Don't worry man, I won't tell anyone your down on the hippies. They are kind of sensitive about things like that.

Was that last word like one of those self deprecating Napoleon Dynamite kind of things? Yeah, though so.
posted by MapGuy at 8:12 PM on September 22, 2007

This is silly.

a) It's not about hippies

b) It's not about hippies

The thing with the police is that police... are police. To me, the fact that it's Greek police is interesting because my experience with police here in a general way is that they are really less visible/violent/threatening/scary than in the U.S., not more so. By any stretch. But what's also interesting and must be taken into account is that Greece is a country where street protests are very common event, and where the overturn of the 70s-era military dictatorship (nudged into place by the U.S., btw) was sparked by a student uprising - a fact that is an intrinsic and celebrated part of the cultural psyche.

There is a very active anarchist voice here; there is a relatively active communist party; pretty much everyone under 50 (and not even neccessarily under 50) views street protests, marches and demonstrations as viable and common ways of expressing dissent/outrage/resistence. Most demonstrations are completely peaceful, some turn violent, many are degraded by hooligan types.

Until a few months ago I lived in an area of Thessaloniki (Aristotelos Square, included, in fact, among Teacher Dudes' photos) where almost all organized protests staged certain actions. Several times a month I could watch a demonstration from my balcony - most often anti-war rallies, but also teachers or civil workers protesting government decisions, or environmental groups marching... and... more than once I had to close all my doors and windows against tear gas when things turned wonky.

But the point is that Greece is a place where all sorts of citizens are likely to take to the streets to make their voices heard (which is not exactly the case in the U.S. - no matter how much civil liberties are trampled), and thus the police must be particularly adept at dealing with these sorts of situations without inciting violence themselves by, say, attacking a random photographer, and without resorting to extreme response as a means of crowd control. It's important. It's vital.

But as I say, police are police - it is a profession that happens to attract some authoritarian types, some violent types, some types who relish the idea of wielding a baton. Everywhere. I'm American, and I've lived in Greece for over 10 years... believe me, I'm much more afraid of the police in the U.S. than I am here ... and I'd like it to stay that way. I know that I can count on the outrage and public voices of the regular citizens here to help to keep it that way, which is why any single incident like this will get a lot of attention, as opposed to everyone just saying, "meh. Stupid hippies. Who cares?"

C) Not about hippies
posted by taz at 10:18 PM on September 22, 2007

taz said: Oh, wow, I know him.

So do I, kinda. He's one of my Flickr contacts, currently based in Bristol AFAIK and I was incensed when I read what had happened to him. Still incredibly angry about this. The freedom to use a camera in public is swiftly becoming limited.
posted by saturnine at 8:38 AM on September 23, 2007