We surrender all too readily to a prevailing, sanitized narrative about “anti-authoritarians” or “people from the anti-authoritarian sphere” who use “gas-canister bombs” against those with whom they happen to have “ideological differences.”
Wrong. There can’t have ideological differences, because they don’t have an ideology. They are a “criminal enterprise” that plants “incendiary devices” and ends up killing people.
And there’s no “anti-authoritarian sphere”, either. What there is are gangs of roaming, marginalized individuals who settle their differences or impose their presence with violence. They rule the roost in universities and squats in public spaces through intimidation and extortion.
I don’t know why it’s so hard for us to understand and accept it for what it is. And by us, I mean everyone: society, political parties, the universities, our security forces and justice system…
And by accept, I in no way mean tolerate. We need to see beyond the ideological trappings and smokescreens and size it up for what it really is. Because you need to look reality squarely in the eye before you can confront it head-on.
Anything else is just window dressing.
Unfortunately, in Greece, we prefer to keep up a constant pretense in relation to things we don’t want to call by their names.
The people who “plant gas canisters” in Thessaloniki, which cost a woman her life, aren’t just immature teenagers who need discipline and a stern talking-to from their elders.
To pull this kind of thing off, they need to organize, identify their targets, plan the raid, build the incendiary devices, transport them in groups, and post lookouts so they don’t get caught.
And if that isn’t a ‘criminal Enterprise’, then what is it? “Boys being boys”?
Unfortunately, the warped perception has prevailed that enforcing the law and protecting the man and woman on the street has a political slant. That some people win, but other lose. That really isn’t the case.
Every citizen of this country, regardless of their political beliefs, enjoys a self-evident right to protection for themselves, their loved ones, and their property. Protection without asterisks or excuses.
But I’m not sure all our political forces, educational institutions, law enforcement agencies—or even the justice system itself—assign the same priority and significance to this obligation.
But if a society does not mobilize wholeheartedly to protect itself, it is a defenseless state.
The sort of state where ordinary people are murdered in the early hours on their own doorsteps.
