considered to be a credible source of information; and the unwillingness of the immigrant, who usually lives in Greece without papers, to ile a complaint for the incident, because he or she is afraid that he or she will be deported. (This second type of unwillingness must be noted although it is beyond the scope of the present study.) The Hellenic Police’s unwavering denial to accept racism as a motive of criminal acts is, irst, a “bureaucratic resistance”, a sign of its unwillingness to understand a new reality confronted by all police forces in nations that have become immigrant destinations. Yet there is more to it than that. To not accept racism as a motive and at the same time prevent victims from taking legal action (as is well documented by now) is a direct sign of an oicial subculture of acquiescence, tolerance and even internalization of racist motives. The “involvement of uniformed and State oicers in the attacks” constitutes a special category in the 2012 Annual Report of the Racist Violence Recording Network,35 which inds an explicit “connection between racist violence and police violence”. In early 2013, the Departments and Oices Against Racist Violence were put to work inside the Hellenic Police. Now, any Greek or foreign citizen can report racist attacks by calling 11414. The creation of this service is certainly laudable. However, neither the (ostensible) education of its members nor its (randomly recruited) staf promise any spectacular results. With an institutional framework that by deinition does not secure any protection either for witnesses or victims of such incidents other than their expulsion, many of our interviewees sense that this oice mainly responds to the needs of good publicity, rather than to any honest attempt at persecuting racist crime, which, by the way, is still denied as such by the Hellenic Police. And, naturally, the reason for this denial is not that such a crime does not exist, but that a large part of the Hellenic Police approves its motives. 13/ THE HELLENIC POLICE AT A CRITICAL CROSSROADS The conclusion of this research is that the current alarming situation within the Greek security forces regarding their various ties with the ultra-right is not surprising. The historical background, a long-established political culture, and the present crisis all contribute to the situation we have tried to describe. The strategy of tension inaugurated by Golden Dawn ater the 2012 elections had two main goals, one medium-term and one long-term. The irst was to boost Golden Dawn’s vote in the coming election. According to this argument, Golden Dawn would like the present government to fail and a let government to come as quickly as possible to power so that this can also fail, creating an opportunity for Golden Dawn soon ater. The long-term goal, however, is the trans-historical goal of the Nazis: to overthrow democratic government, a form of government Golden Dawn has typically rejected. The relevant policy here recalls the histori- 35. 40 | See http://www.unhcr.gr/1againstracism/11940/. ROSA LUXEMBURG STIFTUNG