Anger

As most of you in Greece and around the world have already heard, there are riots in Greece right now, because a policeman shot dead a 15-year-old kid in the street on Saturday night. People are angry. I am angry. Police are supposed to be the good guys that will protect us in time of need. The kid did nothing at all to deserve this. He did not threaten the policeman, he did not attack him, he did not carry any kind of weapon. He just said some things to him. And the policeman got angry and shot him.

The riots have now reached a point where it's not about the kid anymore, it's about the greek state and its incompetence. Many cities have become battle grounds these last three days. People burn, break and destroy everything within their reach. Some even steal too. And that only makes it worst. It makes more people suffer and takes the attention away from the thing that matters:

That a kid was shot by a policeman.

It is wrong. Whose fault is it? My personal opinion:

It's the Police Academy's fault.
It's their responsibility to train policemen properly so they know when to use their guns. If they are not suited to become policemen, flunk them. They can have an office job instead. It's that simple.

It's the police psychologist's fault.
They are supposed to make sure that a person is psychologically mature enough to know when it is absolutely necessary to use a gun. And that's deffinitely NOT when a kid in the street shouts insults and makes him angry.

It's that particular policeman commander's fault.
We have seen many times before kids getting brutally beaten by riot police, even AFTER they have surrendered. That's unprofessional and totally unnecessary, not to mention illegal. If not fired and officially charged with battery - as they should be - their commander should at least let them out of the riot team immediately after they show such behaviour. They are not capable of doing their job right and thus, a public danger.


Bottom line, if they can't keep their calm, they are not suitable for the job. And the people that judge them capable of carrying guns are just as responsible as those that pull the trigger.

And for the record, an incident just like that has happened before in Greece, about 20 years ago. In the trial took place in the early 90's the policeman was acquitted because he supposedly acted under extreme mental stress.
Is that the way this story will end too?
Without anyone to blame?
Without finding out what has to change so that things like that never happen again?
I hope not.