of individual incidents by low-ranking police oicers expressing their discontent with a political environment that disdains them, or who are unhappy about
cuts to their wages. In these conditions, the only party that panders to them
is Golden Dawn. It is only logical that the more militarized among the young
and low-ranking oicers turn to it”. This view does not deny that “there is a
problem”, and this is better than nothing, but the problem is viewed as anything
other than systematic. This has been the nearly predominant view within the
Hellenic Police and Greek governments, but the facts revealed ater September
2013 have made a mockery of it as an untenable apologia. However, there are
two other common views on the degree to which the Greek police force has
been iniltrated by the ultra-right. Both of these move beyond the cliché of
individual incidents, but they difer in important ways.
The second view understands that a series of diferent but mutually reinforcing factors have given rise to a complicated, ominous, and increasingly dangerous situation. The intrusion of the ultra-right is systematic, and has been especially
pronounced in those parts of the Hellenic Police charged with suppressing political protest – meaning the riot police and the DELTA squad (“Force of Control
Fast Confrontation”). The systematic intrusion also extends to speciic police
departments in big cities, mostly in Athens where a major part of police work
is concerned with issues of illegal immigration. Variations on this view were
expressed by a number of police oicers interviewed in our research, who did
not hesitate to admit that “the situation is out of control”. Within the most affected sectors of the Hellenic Police, ultra-right ideology, practices of illegal
violence against demonstrators and immigrants, and a culture of impunity have
become widespread and pervasive, to the point even of forming the hegemonic
work culture. Informal social structures arose that perceive the relationships of
the police to letists, anarchists and immigrants as hostile, in fact existentially
antagonistic; and that invest politically in this antagonism.
The third model of interpretation is predominant within a large, let-wing part of
Greek society. For reasons related both to Greek history and to current police
practices, this sector perceives itself as antagonistic to the Hellenic Police by
deinition. Discussion of ultra-right ideology within the police must also take
into account the way parts of the let indiscriminately incriminate all police,
adopting stereotypical classiications and categories. According to the third
model, “a police oicer is a priori a fascist”, or worse, “[all] cops [are] pigs, murderers”. This view actually serves as a feedback to the consolidation of ultraright ideology among certain police circles, facilitating or accommodating their
slide to the right. We shall call this the “communicating vessels theory”.
The main problem with the framework of the discredited “individual incidents” model
is that it fails to discern the new quality of consolidation indicated by the sheer
quantity of incidents. It is stuck – or, to be more exact, until September 2013 it
was stuck – in the idiosyncratic model of ultra-right violence and ideology, attributing their occurrence to individually conceived characteristics, when these
occurrences of course are not individually inspired. In response to allegations
that the problem is much more serious and the situation is oten out of control,
24 |
ROSA LUXEMBURG STIFTUNG
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