2008 Greek Riots, December 2008

güttsfükk · #1 ● 04-17-2010, 08:54 PM

The 2008 Greek riots started on 6 December 2008, when Alexandros Grigoropoulos (Greek: Αλέξανδρος Γρηγορόπουλος), a 15-year-old student, was fatally shot by Epaminondas Korkoneas, a police officer. Korkoneas, accompanied by another police officer on a patrol, shot Alexandros who was out to celebrate a friend's name day in Exarcheia district of central Athens.

The death of Grigoropoulos resulted in large protests and demonstrations, which escalated to widespread rioting, with hundreds of rioters damaging property and engaging riot police with Molotov cocktails, stones and other objects. Demonstrations and rioting soon spread to several other cities, including Thessaloniki, the country's second-largest city. Outside Greece, solidarity demonstrations, riots and, in some cases, clashes with local police also took place in a number of European cities including Istanbul, London, Paris, Brussels, Rome, Dublin, Berlin, Frankfurt, Madrid, Barcelona, Amsterdam, The Hague, Copenhagen, Bordeaux, Seville as well as Nicosia, the capital of Cyprus, and the western Cypriot city of Paphos. Newspaper Kathimerini called the rioting "the worst Greece has seen since the restoration of democracy in 1974".

While the unrest was triggered by the shooting incident, commentators described the reactions as expressing deeper causes as well, especially a widespread feeling of frustration in the younger generation about specific economic problems of the country (partly as a result of the global economic crisis), a rising unemployment rate among the young generation and a perception of general inefficiency and corruption in Greek state institutions.

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This undated photo made at a unknown location shows 15-year-old Alexandros Grigoropoulos. Some of the worst riots Greece has seen in years began within hours of the fatal shooting of Alexandros Grigoropoulos on Saturday night in the central Athens district of Exarchia.