In December, Greek riot police shot a 15 year old and now anarchist groups based in Greek cities are violently retaliating. It's a story not many of us have heard about, and I think it's interesting (both the lack of coverage and the situation itself) because you rarely see such organized and focused anarchist activity in America and when you do, it's portrayed as mindlessly violent and never sympathetically. But the way the Greek situation is playing out is a little different - note how the police seem to recognize that they have to walk a line too and respect the protesters (before all this started the anarchists had a "fortress" area of a city where police avoided, and the police aren't allowed onto some of the university campuses). Reports have the Prime Minister responding to the protesters by committing to a fight against social injustice and possibly "reshuffling" the government to move away from its current conservatism. (Compare this to the claim that public horror at the 1968 DNC riots was a large factor in Nixon's election.) The policeman who shot the boy is being charged with murder and held in prison while some other higher-ups in charge of the police offered resignations.
Also note how and where this is being reported - Google "Greek Riots" and the first two links you get to current reporting are the BBC and the Christian Science Monitor - it's not exactly a big story in mainstream American reporting. Here's the story:
And for kicks and giggles, check out the Fox News report, which includes quotes from the Socialist party, which is in opposition to the current Prime Minister, saying that the country "is no longer being governed." It seems to more strongly condemn the Greek government for not cracking down harder on the protesters and regaining control - because, you know, when people rise up against a government and demand change, the government's responsibility is to make them sit down and be quiet. It also quotes from the policeman's defense lawyer, saying that the ("not yet complete") ballistics report "proves irrefutably" that the fatal shot was a "ricochet" and that the death was therefore not the officer's fault.
Keep in mind that the protesters have big issues with the current government and the police, and I'm not saying that police or government sentiment in response to the riots is anything close to utopian - I'm just pointing out subtle differences between this situation and how it might play out differently here in America.
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