• Syriza΄s Zoe Konstantopoulou: We bring accountability to public life
    http://www.thepressproject.net/article/71792

    Abolition of riot police

    Greece’s protracted financial crisis has not only brought millions of people to their knees, tugging violently on the country’s social fabric, it has also led to countless demonstrations and marches, with many ending up in clashes with riot police and the use of teargas, amid charges of police brutality.

    Critics, Syriza among them, have long accused governments of using the police as a state instrument of power to enforce their will, trampling on the rights of citizens. Human rights groups have also accused the police of brutality.

    Pledging to put an end to this, Konstantopoulou said that, under Syriza’s watch, riot police squads will be abolished and the use of chemicals to disperse crowd and rioters will be banned.

    “For us what is happening in the country is a distortion: The police is used as a weapon to attack citizens,” she charged. “The role of the police is to stamp out crime and to protect citizens. To guarantee that citizens can live with security”.

    “Unfortunately this is not the case and we see scores of officers used to police the civil liberties of citizens and not used to tackle true criminality,” she said, dismissing accusations by New Democracy that Syriza will ‘disarm’ the police.

    “The police is not armed in order to shoot 15-year-old boys or citizens, or to threaten to use a weapon against those that want their rights”.