Search

On the 6th of December 2008, a police officer shot dead a teenager in Exarcheia, a central area in Athens. Within hours, the reactions turned into riots spreading across Athens. The Athens 2008 riots marked the beginning of the end of the years of affluence in Greece, which culminated symbolically with the 2004 Olympic Games. This paper proposes to read the December 2008 events back and ask to what extent these riots – symbolised by a graffiti on a wall in Athens saying ‘we are an image from the future’ - were a harbinger of the Greek crisis and of the generalised civil unrest which ensued and peaked between 2010-2012. With police data claiming that over 26,000 demonstrations have taken place across Greece since the December 2008 riots, civil unrest seems to have become endemic in the country, symptomatic of a crisis that is not only economic and social, but also political in the sense of the crisis of legitimacy of the State, its representatives and its institutions., El 6 de diciembre de 2008, un policía mató a un adolescente en Exarchia, un área central en Atenas. En pocas horas, las reacciones se transformaron en protestas extendidas por Atenas. Las manifestaciones masivas de Atenas en el 2008 marcaron el inicio del fin de los años de abundancia en Grecia, que culminó simbólicamente con los Juegos Olímpicos de 2004. Este artículo se propone interpretar los acontecimientos de diciembre de 2008 y cuestionar hasta qué punto estas manifestaciones - simbolizadas por un grafiti en un muro en Atenas diciendo ‘somos una imagen del futuro’ - fueron un presagio de la crisis griega y de la inquietud civil generalizada que se siguió y alcanzó su pico entre 2010-2012. Con datos policiales afirmando que más de 26.000 manifestaciones ocurrieron en toda Grecia desde las manifestaciones de diciembre de 2008, movimientos de protesta masivos parecen haberse vuelto endémicos en el país, pudiendo ser interpretados como síntomas de una crisis y no solo económica y social, sino también política en el sentido de la crisis de legitimidad del Estado, de sus representantes y de sus instituciones.

The paper looked at the views and experiences of police officers during the years of the recent economic and political crisis. The story of the protesters and those who have been resisting the austerity measures in Greece is well documented, however, the story of those who have been tasked to reinforce – via repression – the austerity reforms, remains to be told. The police have not been the object of sociological analysis yet and for a variety of reasons they are a taboo-subject, unless police misconduct or police violence is in question. The rejection, even hate against the police is associated with the political history and the structure of the political landscape in Greece. Since 2008, this relationship has further deteriorated, and the crisis which hit Greece in 2010 has seen an unprecedented use of the police, particularly the special forces, and this has exacerbated feelings of mistrust and rejection. A common explanation for such rejection and mistrust is the use of violence: the police are represented as an institution where violence is endemic – and indeed structural violence is part and parcel of the way police officers perform their duties but also of the way police hierarchy works. However, I argued that this is a partial explanation which does not allow us to discern the larger political stakes at play and the political use of the police by the State, especially during times of crisis of the political system.

Three weeks in office the coalition government in Greece appears to be dominating the headlines across Europe. No other government was asked to prove itself so early – practically from day one – and no other government enjoyed such impressive levels of public support and trust, as the recent polls demonstrate. This does not mean that Greeks have turned Marxists over night, but if anything, it reveals the immense level of discontent with the austerity policies followed by the previous government along with a certain willingness to try what a Left governance may look like. Naturally, economic matters have been the centre of attention pre and post elections, however, there are political as well as symbolic developments stemming from the nature of the coalition government, which have so far been overlooked.

This article looks at the experience of policing protests in Greece during the period of the crisis from the point of view of police officers. Policing in Greece – and especially the subjective experience of police officers themselves – is a non-subject of sociological research for historical and political reasons peculiar to Greece and exceeding usual opposition to police as a repressive state apparatus in Western states. The article relies on extensive qualitative work – based on semi-structured and unstructured interviews as well as observation – over a period of seventeen months. It stems from an on going project investigating the everyday experience of police officers and sheds light on topics such as the experience of policing protests, the use of the police by the state, the impact of the hierarchical structure of the institution on the subjectivity of police officers, their relative social isolation, their understandings of the use of violence and their political views.