According to an annual report produced by the Hellenic Police’s Department of Internal Affairs, approximately 150 police officers throughout the country have been found to be guilty of brutality or gross misconduct.
The majority of those cases involve incidents of police brutality (or ‘extreme police behavior’ in the language of the report) either with intent or through gross negligence. A smaller subset of the officers, according to the report, were involved in activities of Golden Dawn.
In total 15 officers have been arrested, 10 of whom participated in illegal activities allegedly committed by the neo-fascist party.
Those ten officers include a former commander of the police department in Agios Panteleimonas (a low-income Athens neighborhood with a high proportion of immigrants and in which Golden Dawn hit squads known to have been particularly active), and six officers assigned to guard Golden Dawn MPs.
The investigation into the extent of participation of police officers in Golden Dawn activities took on added importance following the killing of rapper Pavlos Fyssas by a Golden Dawn supporter exactly one year ago today. That murder shocked the country and triggered a crackdown on the party by the coalition government which many say had, until that point, been wilfully blind to the party’s violent activities.
It also raised further questions about the police’s handling of Golden Dawn. While police officers were present at the scene of the brawl in the neighborhood of Keratsini that led to Fyssas’s death, it has been alleged that they failed to intervene to prevent the violence despite being in a position to do so. Similar allegations have been made by numerous instances in instances where Golden Dawn members have attacked immigrants.
“Isolated cases, not factions”
The report concludes that there is little evidence for the existence of organized groups of Golden Dawn supporters among active police officers, or renegade factions within the force that have an allegiance to the party and participate in Golden Dawn activities.
However when analyzing police violence during the 2009-2013 period, the report notes that incidents of police brutality jumped in 2012 and 2013. That is, following the elections that saw Golden Dawn enter parliament for the first time with almost 7% of the vote, a new atmosphere was created that saw an increase in the incidence of cases of improper police conduct.
The problem of improper police conduct and brutality is particularly acute in the center of Athens. Of the 142 cases of ‘extreme police behavior’ that were recorded throughout the country, 83% occurred in Attica. Particularly problematic are certain neighborhoods in the center of the city such as Ag. Panteleimonas, Kypseli and Omonoia.
Hear no evil, see no evil
The Internal Affairs Department also concludes that there is often insufficient oversight and hierarchical control which is conducive to improper police conduct. Commanding officers, according to the report, frequently have ‘low visibility’ when it comes to the actions of lower ranking officers on patrol.
For instance the decision over whether to act on receive an allegation of a racist attack lies solely with the officer receiving the charge on the street without supervisory control. Frequently first responders were found to be unable or unwilling to respond effectively to allegations of sexual or racist violence.
This, together with cases of police misconduct, reduces the willingness of victims to come forward and report the crimes committed against them. The absence of oversight, accountability and the acceptance of improper conduct intensified victims’ suffering who were forced to seek other bodies for assistance and to report the crime.
The report also found evidence of a misguided culture of ‘solidarity’ and silence between officers in the face of investigations into colleagues’ conduct out of fear of a damaging ‘scandal’, a factor which helps enable officers to behave in a manner not consistent with the law.
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