[inthebox]

The Associated Press: Week of Greek rioting taps into wider discontent

I can understand the outrage over a unjustified murder by the police, but countering with violence worse than the original crime ?

Am I missing something? Is this being funded by other organizations?

I don't understand the mindset of - I'm pissed, disenfranchised, treated unfairly so I'm going to burn down [my] neighborhood. What does this accomplish?
Does it really ingratiate these students to the authorities? Does pelting the police with rocks really get you a job or one that pays more?

Just wondering?





g&p

[tomder55]

I wrote this a couple of days ago and frankly have not kept up with developments.

So a bunch of anarchists organize (an oxymoron in itself) and attack police with rocks and firebombs .The police fight back and a 16 year old rioter gets killed while attemping to throw a Molotov cocktail at the police car . The reports I read said the police murdered him. This act supposedly caused the riots ;even though the riots began immediately after the initial attack . Someone obviously has the time line backwards. I wonder what the shop owners of the establisments they are torching did to piss them off ? To placate the mob the police officer who fired the fatal shot has been charged with "manslaughter with intent" and suspended from duty A second police officer was arrested Saturday on criminal accessory charges. The neglected and under reported aspect of these events is that many of these so called "anarchists " are chanting Allahu Akbar during their rampage . What we are seeing is the same thing that is happening throughout Europe. Once migrants from the "peaceful religion " achieve critical mass these types of events occure.

From an October article: A rising tide of migrants unsettles Athens - International Herald Tribune

About 80,000 migrants have traveled to Greece this year and decided to stay illegally, according to the authorities, who say the country can no longer handle the task of guarding the European Union's southeast flank. While initial problems with the flood of migrants from Africa and the Middle East who are desperate to enter Europe centered on the Aegean islands, migrants are now wreaking havoc in the capital. The historic center of Athens has been riven by several street battles in recent months, involving what the police characterize as rival groups, often involved in dealing drugs, from Afghanistan, Iraq and war-torn African countries wielding swords, axes and machetes. After 11 people were hurt in one such brawl in late August, the police began 24-hour patrolling of the area. Store owners and residents are leaving the busy central shopping and restaurant district. According to a residents' group, dozens of people renting in the area have left their homes in the past year, and several stores have closed, chiefly small but long-established neighborhood conveniences like bakeries, hardware stores or delicatessens. "People are scared and depressed, it's getting worse and worse," said Vassiliki Nikolakopoulou of the group, Panathinaia. The top policy adviser for immigration issues at the Interior Ministry, which also oversees public order, blames the influx of about 80,000 migrants this year.

The Greeks have come a long way since The Battle of Thermopylae. If these events repeat similar events that are occurring in Paris suburbs and London among other European cities ,there will soon be established enclaves and pockets of the city where the residents will self police along some Imam's interpretation of Sharia rules. The authorities will consider these areas as no-patrol zones. These areas will continue to expand throughout the country. But this will continue to be reported as "rampaging youth " or " anarchists " or "youthful protesters " and other such politically correct pablum.

[speechlesstx]

The media is only trying to help, tom.

The protests are driven in part by the widening gap between rich and poor in a country where the minimum monthly wage is €658 ($850), graduates have poor job prospects and the government is making painful reforms to the pension system.

"It is clear that this wave of discontent will not die down. This rage is spreading because the underlying causes remain," said veteran left-wing politician Leonidas Kyrkos...

"We want a better world. We are not hooligans or terrorists ... we are your children. You were young once too." wrote "Theo" on one of several groups dedicated to the dead teenager on Internet networking site Facebook.

It's that widening income gap, they just want a better world and if it takes a little riot here and there and a few hundred destroyed, looted shops it's a small price for a better world. What harm can come from "Greek high school students," Spanish youths," "Student protesters" and other Groups of youths having a little demonstration?

Meanwhile, Greek authorities are planning to release about 40% of Greece's prison population.

[excon]

Riots - What purpose?

Hello in:

First you got your demonstrations... Then you got your civil disobedience. Then if that doesn't get what you want, you got your riots.

Purpose? Change. Does it work? It DOES.

excon

[inthebox]

Thanks Tom and Speech for the insight.

Is it really anarchists and disaffected Muslim immigrants?

Ex:

What specifically have riots, by themselves, accomplished other than destruction and mayhem? Will it get the life of that victim back?



I remember when I was in college in the early 80s and there were peaceful demonstrations and political activism involved in ending apartheid.


MLK accomplished the civil rights through civil disobedience and turning the other cheek. It was not riots or Malcolm X's violence that turned the tides.






g&p

[excon]

What specifically have riots, by themselves, accomplished other than destruction and mayhem? will it get the life of that victim back?

Hello again, in:

By and of themselves, nothing... But, riots don't happen in a vacuum. Something happened to precipitate a riot, and something happened afterwords.

To answer your question specifically, this country, the one in which you live, wouldn't have occurred had it not been for riots. The example below is just one of many that preceded our American Revolution.

In 1765 a group of angered colonists calling themselves the "Sons of Liberty" gained rapid growth throughout the Colonies as they vent a mob violence against Stamp Agents and supporters of the Stamp Act. The term "Sons of Liberty" was coined in Parliament by Colonel Isaac Barre who had opposed Grenville's Stamp Act with the proclamation that the earlier Molasses and Sugar Acts had "made the blood of those sons of liberty boil within them."

In Boston (August 25) a mob burns the home of Massachusetts Lieutenant Governor Thomas Hutchinson, while in New York there is serious rioting. Stamp agents are tarred and feathered with yet another hung by the seat of his pants from the liberty pole.

In England Lord Grenville falls out of favor with King George III and is forced to resign. Meanwhile in the Colonies Lord Grenville is hung in effigy and a 43 year old Massachusetts revolutionary named Same Adams becomes a leader in the "Sons of Liberty" movement which gains increasing notice as they publicly defy Parliament and the Crown by burning stamps and scaring stamp agents into resignation.

----------------

The fact is, in, this country was founded on disobedience, turned into riots, turned into revolution.

excon

[tomder55]

What you will see worldwide is that nanny state nations collapse on themselves when there are more old people suckling on entitlements than there are productive youths to support the government scheme.
They have gone from having about .05% immigrants to about 12% in the space of a few years to compensate for the imbalance.

[inthebox]

Ex :

That is a false analogy.

What have these Greek riots hope to accomplish by burning someone's shop or throwing rocks at police?

What did the La riots accomplish by burning a neighborhood down.

Where is the revolution?






g&p

[excon]

Hello again, in:

The Greeks are rioting because they don't like the actions of their police. If the police don't change, revolution is next...

You can't take one battle out of a war and ask whether it was worth it. Well, I guess you can, but it don't work so good.

excon

[inthebox]

So these rioters are taking the advantage of the tragedy of a death of someone at the hands of the police to change the Greek government?

Say what? Does that make sense? Would that make sense to you if it was your business or personal property that was destroyed or damaged in a riot?


A "battle" - I hope you don't mean the equivalent of a Gettysburg?

BTW - what revolution did the Rodney King riots cause?






g&p