The architecture of a Nazi murder exposed
October 6, 2018 8:54 AM   Subscribe

On September 18, 2013, in a working class neighborhood of Piraeus, Greece, Golden Dawn nazis, attacked and stabbed to death 34 year old rapper Pavlos Fyssas [previously]. His murder precipitated, albeit belatedly, the seminal and ongoing trial of the organization. A guilty verdict on charges of forming a criminal organization would lead to Golden Dawn being outlawed in Greece.
At the trial, which has been dragging on for 4 years now, the prosecution invited Forensic Architecture, a "multidisciplinary research group based at the University of London that uses architectural techniques and technologies to investigate cases of state violence and violations of human rights around the world", to sort through the evidence and recreate what happened the night of Pavlos Fyssas murder. The findings where damning for both the police and the Golden Dawn thugs. The police is shown to have lied about the time of their arrival at the crime scene and about their proximity to the crime, standing next to Fyssas as he was being stabbed. The Golden Dawn members' mobile phone calls corroborate that there was a chain of command that ordered the killing.
Forensic Architecture's video on the murder summarizing their analysis, presented to the court along with their full report, is a masterpiece of analytic exposition and impressively recreates the events surrounding the murder based on available data sources.
posted by talos (10 comments total) 43 users marked this as a favorite
 
When I visited Athens last year I was struck by how much of the graffiti and signage in the anarchist neighborhood featured both Pavlos Fyssas and Heather Heyer. Even if we're still sleepwalking in America, pretending that the problem is just 45, the world understands that we're all in the same fight. one big struggle against global fascism.
posted by Reclusive Novelist Thomas Pynchon at 9:08 AM on October 6, 2018 [30 favorites]


The findings where damning for both the police and the Golden Dawn thugs. The police is shown to have lied about the time of their arrival at the crime scene and about their proximity to the crime, standing next to Fyssas as he was being stabbed. The Golden Dawn members' mobile phone calls corroborate that there was a chain of command that ordered the killing.

sounds remarkably similar to the events detailed in Z, the movie and the book. However organized political evil works in Greece -- it seems to work from a consistent pattern. Or as Reclusive Thomas P just put it:

one big struggle against global fascism.
posted by philip-random at 9:12 AM on October 6, 2018 [8 favorites]


Reading about Forensic Architecture made me think theres a certain amount of overlap in their approach to info gathering and analysis with that of Bellingcat. And indeed, it appears they have done some work together on Venezuela.

Thank you for the post!
posted by Kabanos at 9:30 AM on October 6, 2018 [2 favorites]


This is incredible. Thanks.
posted by k8t at 9:48 AM on October 6, 2018


This is a tour de force and very clearly shows police culpability, or even complicity in their inaction, within feet the Pavlos's murder. Fascinating.
posted by tclark at 9:53 AM on October 6, 2018 [1 favorite]


"Cops and Klan go hand-in-hand" is a global truth.
posted by Pope Guilty at 10:09 AM on October 6, 2018 [18 favorites]


I will never get tired of bigging up FA. They are showing us all the way.
posted by adamgreenfield at 11:28 AM on October 6, 2018 [4 favorites]


Wow, I really wish I had some skills so that I could work for Forensic Architecture.
posted by gucci mane at 5:21 PM on October 6, 2018 [1 favorite]


FA mentioned previously, for work that is now nominated for this year's Turner Prize. Their recent in-depth on the Juventa case (double-billed with Forensic Oceanography) is similarly seminal/amazing. (No surprise that the BBC has recently taken a page from their playbook.)
posted by progosk at 8:51 AM on October 7, 2018 [4 favorites]


A tangent re: Turner Prize: I heard (from a second-hand source) that FA isn't too keen on being categorized as 'art,' as they feel like it would diminish their believability as researchers.
posted by dst at 1:12 PM on October 13, 2018


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