1990-2010 // 20 YEARS OF VOID NETWORK

VOID NETWORK starting the 1990-2010 celebrations for the 20 years of non stop cultural, social and political activism publishes here an introductive interview taken by Jovenes en Resistencia Alternativa (Youth for Alternative Resistance)in Mexico City in Octomber 2008

Inteview of VOID NETWORK to J.R.A. (Jovenes en Resistencia Alternativa Youth for Alternative Resistance / Mexico City) for the «Seminario about «Other» Communication Tools» // Octomber 2008

1.
When, Why and How Void Network created?
"Void Network first appeared in 1990 in Athens with aim the radicalization of every day life and the construction of situations in Public Space through the creation of Temporary Utopian Public Environments. Believing that there is no possibility for the society to change as long the people remain the same we work as a re-programming mechanism trying through our active influence to fight against apathy and enforce all kinds of young mutants (freaks, hippy ravers, hip-hopers, hardcore punks, manic depressives, melancholic’s, Goths, amateur intellectuals and artists e.t.c.) to sustain their difference, to attain visibility in the public space and to act like conscious political social beings by participating with their own autonomous and independent ways to the social struggles of our times. Our work is mainly the positive influence for the arising of personal critical mind and the transformation of the old boring left politics into enthusiastic collective urban spaces of resistance
Void Network started in 1990 as a company of 15 (or more) close friends that, through every day meetings in all kinds of urban spaces, they felt the need to manifest the enthusiasm of their co-existence in the public space…Some they had rock or experimental electronic bands, some they were painters, poets, photographers, amateur magicians, crazy urban mythologists, networkers, techno-visionaries, astro-physicians, anthropologists, urban poleodomists, architectures, d.j.s, visual artists or just all of them crazy motherfuckers in need to destroy any kind of modern authority for the benefit of eternal Love and Chaos…All those together we call them cultural activists, multi-expressional artists, space travelers, ecstatic beings…It was love and the fact of the understanding of interdependence of our individual separate knowledge, sciences, feelings, political ideas and activities that kept us together…Year after year we realized that each one of us was incomplete without the wisdom, the love and the action of all the others…Interdependence is the key word…We felt that by the participation in this urban, collective, self-invented and self-organized identity we could achieve and manifest moments of real life that we could never ever leaved alone… We realized that to be a lonely individual trapped in your own interests is a normality in our times but in all past cultures it was a form of social punishment…The English word «idiot» (stupid) comes from a Greek word «idiotis» that is this one that doesn’t participate in the common political and social life, this one that doesn’t have and don’t express in public his/her opinion, this one that has only private (ïdiotika-stupid) interests…From that early moment we started to look this world and the bourgeois individuals completely different
After 2000 Void Network transformed into an international collective with active psychonauts in England, Germany, Brasil and U.S.A. This happened through international travelling for Void Network situations that end up in great friendship and creative collaboration with some new, wonderful, creative friends and collectives from all the places that we ever being as a collective (this process is always open) .

The manifestation of Void Network is happening in public spaces, university areas, autonomous social centers, squatted buildings and independent art rooms through Open Public Dialogues, multi media lectures and poetry shows, open free festivals, multi screen Void Optical Arts Atmospheres (live cross-platform collaborations between visual artists, photographers, poets, lecturers, d.j.s, musicians), performances, documentary representations, culture jamming, organization of demonstrations, street parades and public actions, celebrations, concerts, raves and open collaborative workshops. In Void Network artists, activists, academic scientists and spiritual friends work together through dialogue, interaction and synchronized activity and they manifest multi formic conditions of open access to creativity, education, free information, open liberated autonomous public zones, meeting places, places of communication, empathy, expression and creation for thousands upon thousands of people.

2.
How you organize and how you communicate in each country and internationally with the different sections of your collective?

Void Network is not an organization, a formal typical organization. Void Network is a company of friends meet informally almost every day, that means that we don’t have a specific day of assembly. Generally speaking, from the first years until know we expressed a psychological effort to separate our forms of organizing from the classical boring ways of left organizing…Anyway we meet cause we want to and not cause we have to..., whoever doesn’t want to participate in an action he doesn’t, there is not existing any feeling of obligation for any specific goal that has to be achieved or that is higher than the personal feeling, the personal feeling is in high respect, and the collective needs are not most important than the personal needs …In this way we are completely different from any kind of left organization that through paternalism and psychological control manipulate the feelings, the relations and the personal needs for the benefit of an ideological common goal (that suppose to be more important). In Void Network there is not any collective goal higher from the efforts to achieve the best possible feeling of co-existence and love…From the practical way, Love can save us all…As long as you feel trust, love, mutual aid and mutual power with your best friends then you can do everything, even things you could never imagine… For some period, (about every three or four months) we make some assemblies that we call them Void Cycle….in a different friend’s house every time or in some public park in the summertime to talk about our general feeling, to rearrange commitment and to focus on the strategies and future coming situations. Of course, in the centre of Athens before 4 years we created with other collectives the social centre Nosotros, where we meet also in an informal way each other and we discuss about the events that we want to do, as also we participate in the open assembly of the social center and trying to bring in contact with the functioning of the social center as many interesting and creative people of our city is possible. The important thing is that we don’t have some specific person to do some specific work, all of us we do all the work, and that day by day we meet and every night we expand our visions and hopes and dreams about Void Network, any kind of debate, criticism or analysis turns into public action, any kind of personal idea becomes collective dream, any kind of individual inspiration becomes collective ecstasy.
In the same way has to do with the international cells…We try to invite the people from other countries to come and stay in our houses for some months and we try to travel also to meet them…is the best way of communication, as also of creativity, cause mainly we try also to meet «on the stage», this means to meet on the process of creating all together a situation, an event, a public show, any kind of public appearance…Of course also we use internet, emails and the Void Network blog as to follow and be informed all by each cell about the absolute independent actions of any other existing cell is undertaking.
We have an email address that is same in all countries and that all friends have passwords and access so they can be informed (if they want) about all messages that we receive and send and according to each person’s interests to focus, to start further talking, to express opinion, to invent ideas, to participate…

3.
What tools you use for communication inside Void Network and with other people?

Marihuana in the houses and in the public space, l.s.d. on small controled doses only on the beach and forests, alcohol in the streets, the squares, squats and underground clubs, general enthusiastic condition of co-existence , hard-core non-stop analytical debate , arguments, fights, sex, fall in love, cooking, drinking, talking until the next morning with loud voices and sleeping in the same house all of us together...All of us realy hate heroin, cocaine and hypnotic pills but we enjoy getting mind expanding psychedelic substances in small controlled doses and go to parties and in concerts or go out in the nature naked all together….These are usually some of the best ways to meet each other and to find new friends and new creative members of our collective… Also we use to participate in general assemblies of the anarchist movement, especially in solidarity for political prisoners and immigrants as also to the anarcho-ecological movement, the antifasicst-antinationalistic movement and other social struggles, to the students movement against the privatization of education, as also we create together with other collectives every year the Legalize Marihuana Festival Against All Addictions and All Prohibitions. In international level we participate in the struggles and the fights against G8, Nato, European Union, WTO and generaly speaking we take part in the antiauthoritarian-anticapitalist global movement …In this way communication comes directly through the common participation in the struggles… As we say: we will meet in the barricades…
Another very important element in our action in Greece is the existence of the area and square Exarchia in the center of Athens as an undergound meeting point of the anarchists and radical leftists, the punks, the freaks, the metals e.t.c., an area with many social centers (among them Nosotros ), publishers, typographers, clubs and bars…In this square coming people from all around Athens and is the center of information for all movement…This means that we stick our posters and spreading our thousands of flyers and pamphlets face to face to the comrades, the friends and the interesting faces that comes to the area of Exarchia, and as it is in the center of the city, and people coming there from all the different city sections, the message is spreading through rumors in all city. In a different way existing another entertaining area in Athens, named Psiris, where all kinds of commercial clubs and bars existing there and all kinds of thousands of people going there especially in weekends…We go there also to spread our flyers choosing face to face the people that we find interesting and we want to meet and invite in our situations…This means that we don’t feel any interest to communicate with any other people except the thousands and thousands of the people that we find interesting and interested. For this reason sometime we can stay in a central street spreading 2000 flyers in 3 hours and you will not find after even one of them thrown down to the street .We try our flyers to be in the same moment announcements of high quality super interesting events in high quality design and printing and in the back side always to exist small manifestos and provocative philosophical-political paragraphs that arises questions, thinking, dialogue and debate…In this way we don’t waist all the efforts of spreading this 15000 or more flyers every time in the city just as an announcement of our event but also as a face to face provocation for critical mind and creative debate…Parts of our experience and methods from our work in Athens are infiltrating our work and putted in practice also in all other cities in the world that we work …

4.
What kind of educative tools or workshops you use ?

Educative tools….first of all the London Void Network Global Eye multi media activists together with Athens Void Network have started to create a Global Earth Academy as a public, philosophical and practical platform of meetings and sharing of tools, materials and ideas.
The main project of Global Earth Academy is to bring physically together creative people wishing to engage with many different issues, help each other be better prepared to form and enforce their dreams, provide a close network of friends for future collaborations and support.
Our plan is whilst exploring our planet Earth stay in a series of natural and urban locations, meet up with like minded positive revolutionary people from all over the world, spending anything between a few days or a few months teaching each other, learning through experiential collaborative projects, exchanging information and inspiration, creating, sharing, growing and built up together great free open public festivals as a conclusion of this meetings.
Our day programe is simple : Every individual, being both student and teacher, aiming to posses the collective knowledge of the whole group. Sharing and exchange of practical information, technologies, artworks and skills in the mornings, putting it in creative collaborative practice in the afternoons and spending celebrative free time in the evenings. At the end of each Global Earth Academy residency the results of all the cross platform collaborative projects will be presented in the form of interactive artistic shows allowing for the open public social interaction with the local community and the wider world.
Skills to exchange and put in practice: media, photography, music, painting, drawing, sculpture, performance, graphics, fashion, design, theatre, dance, poetry, political philosophy, anthropology, spiritual cultivation, confidence, determination, science, electronics, software, sustainable living, culture jamming, moneyless urban survival, squatting, wilderness survival, zen aikido, reiki, meditation, nutrition, health, communication, philosophy,utopian non-profit economics, underground anti-business, piratic managing, traveling, collaboration, Kosmo-Political Consciousness, happiness, empathy, wisdom...

The educative tools that we use is the speech , the discussions and explanations about what we do and the willing to share our experience and our work .The educative tools are not some machines or computers .They are the living discussions between activists and friends. Also is the meeting with new upcoming artists, groups, djs, visual artists or theoreticians and the invitation to take part in our events as so to give them the opportunity to express their message and their art to thousands of people, a process that offers to them strong enforcement to continue working in the underground scene and become better and better.

5.
Thinking theoretically about the communication tools and visions about the Öther Communication

As we don’t want to be an «ideological abstract mind construction bringing the truth and salvation to the people» we refuse to attain contact and address our message to the normal life people that through their apathy and obeying, sustain the global system of injustice and exploitation and we try to bring together as more as possible people that they made by themselves the first step to negate the authority and the suppression of political and financial elites of this planet.
For us as Oscar Wilde was saying about the moralists, the do-good people, the obeying masses of the virtues poor workers, the tabloid newspapers readers and conformists searching just for a comfortable private life : «they have made private terms and contracts with the enemy and sold their birthright for very bad prize». We know that existing many rationalized parts and functions of the normal life that in reality there are paranoid mechanisms of totalitarianism and fascism but all of them they can be explained by the normal citizens as rational and with no real reason to fight against them. The concept of normality, as this of a common sense that leads to apathy, is highly suspicious to us, as to all libertarian and anarchist tradition, and we could accept the advice of Michel Foucault that «maybe the target nowadays is not to discover what we are but to refuse what we are»…What we are, Foucault is saying, «can mean being conformist and submissive, accepting the social and political identities that we happen to inherit historically as if they were natural and unchangeable»…In the other hand we believe that there are existing millions and millions of people out there on the planet Earth ready to participate in the social struggle for liberation and equality…and these are our friends, our people, our comrades…Our arts, our talks, our actions, our gatherings are dedicated and directed to them…This is not an art show, this is not politics, this not propganda…This is our Life…When we fight, we fight for our lives…We create Utopian Atmospheres, Liberated Public Zones, Temporary Autonomous Zones, squats and social centers as welcoming areas for all the people they are dedicated to escape from the common sense, for the anti-conformist people they decided to jump in the unknown lands of negation, autonomy, self-organization and critical consciousness…There are millions of people in all those years that they took a trip, or they refused their work, or they took a van, a train for a far away land, they left to the mountains, escaped to the secret city areas, to underground clubs and dirty rooms of squats around the world…They disconnected…they left, gone away…We would like, after our disconnection to have places to meet again, a position to stand, visionary directions to follow and travel all together…Many that gone, lost themselves…and never reach any point, never arrive…Our strategy is therefore the following: to immediate establish a series of locations and conditions of focus for all kinds of desertions, secession poles, meeting points. For the runaways, this ones that escaped, for those who left away, a welcoming set of places to take shelter from the control of a civilization that is headed to the abyss…When we fight, we fight for our friends, the people we love, for all the people they revolt, and with the power of their revolt, they escaped…
The «Other» communication is a communication in depth, a live communication not a skeleton one, a communication face to face and not only through a computer screen.
There is the local communication with the groups and with the collectives in our city, in our country and there is the global communication with groups, collectives outside of our country, in u.s.a , in europe , in balkans , in asia…
The global communication needs of course the use of the internet but what kind of global communication? May be we know each other but we don’t do anything together .The point is that we should organize and make things , events , lectures, parties, marches together as a real international movement ……To find the collectives that we feel that we care each other, that we like each other and co-ordinate international events together, in all over the planet…by sharing common programmes, lectures, documentaries, visual shows, recorded music, organizing the same event in different places of the planet in the same day, sharing power and resources…Because the problem is not that we cannot find each other but that we cannot meet each other…And the best way to meet is «on the stage», in the streets, in the social centers, in a collective created situation, in a global day of fight, in the spherical space of the global co-organized and in-tuned struggles
The Void Network has started in 2003 and will continue in the future the TOTAL FREEDOM Global Tour as invitation and tool of collaboration of the international cells and groups of Void Network with local activists, collectives and artists of many different areas of this planet…We find this a wonderful way of meeting with other people not as invited artists in a far away land but as co-creators of multi-element festivals in far away lands…We believe that activist nomadic life has a lot to offer as a personal experience and as a double sided sharing of inspiration also for the travelers and also for the people that offers hospitality to them…We would like in any moment , to be ready to undertake the goal of offering hospitality, solidarity and sharing of skills and material resources to as much revolted people are possibly in need of them …

6.
Through your work and your experience what was the problems and limitations that you faced? Which was the things that worked and which not? Which are the limits of your actions, the challenges and the problems that you face?

Some time, we feel that we are not enough…..that we want to do many things but we are not enough people or we don’t have enough mental and physical power. The most important problem is that we don’t give as much time as it needs to work and travel collectively…some of us are in university…some are working…some are afraid to drop out, to escape from normality…some of us are afraid to really put in practice their dreams, are afraid to express openly their believes and their real wishes…The time that we offer to solve our individual problems keep us away from realizing that these problems are common and there is only collective ways to solve them…It is a matter of giving ourselves the means, of finding the scale in which all those questions, which when you try to solve separated can drive you to depression, can be resolved. How to get rid of all the dependencies that weaken us? How to get organized so as to no longer have to work? How to settle beyond the toxicity of the metropolis without «leaving for the countryside»?...How to help the friends they fall in depression without the need of psychiatry?...How to fight constantly without going back to our every day life after every party or demonstration?...How to share our interests and feel all included?...How to live together without mutually dominating each other?...How to do not becoming a cultural or social closed ghetto?...How to do not becoming boring one to each other?...How to react to the death or the imprisonment of a comrade?...How to destroy the empire?...We know our weakness: we are born and we have grown up in pacified societies, lost and found in the fear of separation, unable to participate and open our selves, alienated in an urban space that is expanding like a desert in our hearts… We have not, as much as we realy need, the opportunity to acquire the consistency that the moments of intense collective confrontation and the sharing of collective happiness can give…We miss also much knowledge and skills that is linked to them…We have to create new forms of social life and new forms of mutual political education together…A theoretical and practical education…For this we need places, situations, atmospheres and conditions…Places to get organized, conditions to share, atmospheres to develop and to co-operate…There is no moral question in the way we provide ourselves the means to live and fight, but a tactical question of the means we give to ourselves and how we use them…As some friends were writing in an underground book «The expression of capitalism in our lives is the sadness». The great question now is to establish the material conditions for a shared and confrontational Ecstatic Joy, Compassion and Wisdom…When we fight we fight for our lives…From now on, all friendship will be Revolutionary!

text : Void Network [Theory,Utopia,Empathy,Ephemeral Arts]

1990 / 2010

Underground Resistance/Psychedelic Trance party>>Sat.12 Dec.>> Occupied Livadia University

KENO ΔΙΚΤΥΟ
VOID NETWORK
http://voidnetwork.blogspot.com/
presents
UNDERGROUND RESISTANCE
psychedelic trance
progressive techno
drum 'n bass

IRAKLIS MINDPHASER
CRYSTAL ZERO
TRITOSTEP
HIGHPNO
GLOSTER
d.j. MAGNUS from U.K.
+
visuals:
Void Optical Art Laboratory

Saturday 12 December 2009

starts 23.00
at the
occupied University
of beautifull town
LIVADIA
ΚΑΤΑΛΗΨΗ
ΠΑΝΕΠΙΣΤΗΜΙΟΥ
ΛΙΒΑΔΕΙΑΣ
[ just 1.30 hour from Athens!
Travel Awayand join the great night

until late next morning!

The Party will take place
inside university building
and will be full protected
from rain...All Are Welcome! ]

ΚΕΝΟ ΔΙΚΤΥΟ
VOID NETWORK

http://voidnetwork.blogspot.com

Αγοράζουμε και πουλάμε διαρκώς…

Αγοράζουμε και πουλάμε….
Στις μεγαλουπόλεις η βία του εμπορίου
μετουσιώνεται στο συνεχές τρέξιμο
για επιβίωση.
Στις επαρχίες, βία είναι η ρουτίνα του
να επιβιώνεις κάθε μέρα.
Όταν η ύπαρξη εγκλωβίζεται
μέσα στα κλουβιά της οργανωμένης ευφορίας
και του εκβιαστικού άγχους,
η αντιβία των ζωντανών οφείλει να είναι η ίδια η ζωή.
Το μόνο ρήγμα από το οποίο
μπορεί να ξεπροβάλλει
η ελεύθερη υποκειμενικότητα
είναι το Παιχνίδι :
Ερωτικό,
Kαλλιτεχνικό,
Φιλοσοφικό,
Συγκρουσιακό,
Εκστατικό
- ή
τίποτα...

κείμενο: Κατάληψη Πανεπιστημίου Λειβαδιάς

We buy and sell….
Constantly we buy and sell…
In the cities
Violence of Trade is transformed in a
continuous running
for survival.
In the provinces,
Violence is the Routine
to survive each day.When our existence
is getting trapped inside
the cages of organized euphoria
and the blackmail of anxiety,
the counter-violence
of living beings must be
Life itself.
The only break through
from which may come out
the Free subjectivity
is Play:
Erotic,
Artistic,
Philosophical,

Confrontational,
Ecstatic Play
- or
nothing! ...

text: Occupied Livadia University

event report: It was a winter collective travelling. People from Void Network and Natural High went to Livadia, just 2 hours away from Athens and organized a rave party feauturing political and philosophical Void Art projections. More than 100 people attended the event even though hard rain and cold weather kept many people home. The most important is that existing an active cell of cultural activists now in Livadia and all of us we are ready to connect our efforts as to bring a new atmosphere in the life of country side..There are existing many people who wish to participate in this struggle and we are sure that will bring amazing results in this next Spring and Summer...

The photos are from the area around the open public theatre existing 3 minutes away from the centre of Livadia in Kria...All of us we participated in the meeting there in Sunday morning decided that this is a wonderfull place, we will offer all our powers to invite as many people as possible in two magical events there during late Spring and late summer... There will be amazing times and we are sure that all travellers will Love it!...Keep in contact...More events in Greek country-side is under construction,...Let's search all possible ways to travel, enjoy nature, meet all together in some far away lands... We are waiting for your invitations, your ideas, dreams and visions...Come in contact:

voidinternational@gmail.com

Δημόσια Κατάθεση μιας Αυτόπτου Μάρτυρος της Δολοφονίας του Αλέξη Γρηγορόπουλου // Testimony of Eyewitness of the Assassination of Alexis Grigoropoulos

Δημόσια Κατάθεση μιας Αυτόπτου Μάρτυρος της Δολοφονίας του Αλέξη Γρηγορόπουλου. Η κοπέλα που μιλά σε αυτή την δημοσίευση έγινε γνωστή σε όλο τον κόσμο μέσα απο το βίντεο της δολοφονίας το οποίο κινηματογράφησε από το μπαλκόνι του σπιτιού της που βρήσκεται ακριβώς πάνω από το σημείο της δολοφονίας και πρόκηται να είναι μια από της βασικές μάρτυρες κατηγορίας του δολοφόνου αστυνομικού Επ.Κορκoνέα. Η μαρτυρία είναι ένα απόσπασμα από το βιβλίο We Are An Image From The Future (Είμαστε Μια Εικόνα Από το Μέλλον) που θα κυκλοφορήσει τον Φεβρουάριο του 2010 στις Η.Π.Α. από τον Αναρχικό εκδοτικό οίκο ΑΚPrees με την επιμέλεια των A.G.Scwartz, Τάσος Σαγρής, Κενό Δίκτυο.

Δημόσια Κατάθεση μιας Αυτόπτου Μάρτυρος της Δολοφονίας του Αλέξη Γρηγορόπουλου
Είμαι μια κάτοικος των Εξαρχείων και το μπαλκόνι του σπιτιού μου βρίσκεται ακριβώς πάνω από το σημείο που δoλοφονήθηκε ο Αλέξης Γρηγορόπουλος
Δεν συμμετέχω σε καμία πολιτική δραστηριότητα. Δεν είμαι μια ακτιβίστρια. Μπορώ να μιλήσω μόνο για τη δολοφονία. Δεν μπορώ να πάρω κάποια θέση σχετικά με όλα τα άλλα πράγματα που συνέβησαν επειδή όλα αυτά τα υπόλοιπα πράγματα είναι πολύ περίπλοκα και δεν έχω σαφείς σκέψεις σχετικά με αυτά.
Τα Εξάρχεια ήταν πάντοτε μια εναλλακτική γειτονιά, μια περιοχή αντι-κουλτούρας. Για πολλά χρόνια ήταν πολύ συχνό φαινόμενο ότι κάτι θα συμβεί σε μια γωνιά του δρόμου στα Εξάρχεια και ξαφνικά όλοι από τις καφετέριες και τα μπαρ και τα πεζοδρόμια θα χυθούν έξω στους δρόμους και θα τρέξουν να δουν τι συμβαίνει. Συνήθως ήταν επεισόδια μεταξύ των ανθρώπων και της αστυνομίας, μάχες ή αντιπαραθέσεις, ύβρεις, συνθήματα. Τα παλιά χρόνια αυτό συνέβαινε πολύ συχνά. Στη συνέχεια, υπήρξε μια περίοδος που αυτό δεν συνέβαινε τόσο πολύ, αλλά τα τελευταία χρόνια έχει αρχίσει να γίνεται και πάλι. Ο λόγος που βρέθηκα με μια φωτογραφική μηχανή στο μπαλκόνι εκείνη τη νύχτα ήταν επειδή πάντα ήθελα να κινηματογραφίσω μια από αυτές τις αντιπαραθέσεις που λαμβάνουν χώρα κάτω από το παράθυρό μου. Αλλά κάθε φορά που έβγαινα στο μπαλκόνι μου να δω τι συμβαίνει, είχα καθυστερήσει. Μέχρι να πάω πίσω στο εσωτερικό του σπιτιού για να πάρω τη φωτογραφική μηχανή μου ήταν πολύ αργά, είχαν ήδη όλα τελειώσει. Αυτό μου συνέβη πολλές φορές. Και η τελευταία φορά που συνέβη αυτό, είπα στον εαυτό μου, την επόμενη φορά, πρώτα θα αρπάξω την κάμερα και μετά θα βγώ στο μπαλκόνι. Τελικά, δυστυχώς η «επόμενη φορά» αποδείχθηκε ότι ήταν ένα περιστατικό που ποτέ δεν περίμενα να συμβεί.
Δύο χρόνια νωρίτερα, ένας φίλοςμου με επισκέφθηκε από τη Γερμανία και μου ανέφερε την εντύπωση του ότι η αστυνομία εδώ φαίνεται πολύ προκλητική και πολύ επικίνδυνη. Ακόμα κι αν αυτός ήταν τουρίστας, ο τρόπος που συμπεριφέρονταν οι αστυνομικοί τον έκανε να αισθάνεται λιγότερο ασφαλής, τον έκανε να αισθάνεται ότι απηλείται, ότι βρήσκεται σε κίνδυνο. Και όταν αυτός ο φίλος άκουσε αυτό που συνέβη στις 6 Δεκεμβρίου, έγραψε κάπου ότι για αυτόν δεν ήταν καθόλου έκπληξη....
Για εμένα όμως ήταν... Όλες τις προηγούμενες φορές, ποτέ δεν ένιωσα φόβο παρατηρώντας αυτές τις συγκρούσεις μεταξύ των ανθρώπων και της αστυνομίας. Ήταν μέρος της καθημερινής ζωής μου στο Εξάρχεια. Ήταν κάτι το σύνηθες. Επειδή πολλοί κάτοικοι και θαμώνες των Εξαρχείων έχουν μια ρητή άρνηση των αρχών, και την εκφράζουν σταθερά και πιστεύουν σε αυτή, κάθε φορά που συνέβαινε κάτι δεν χρειαζόταν να πάρω κάποια συγκεκριμένη θέση, διότι όλα αυτά ήταν ακριβώς ένα μέρος της ζωής μου σε αυτήν την περιοχή. Φυσικά, στα δέκα χρόνια που έχω ζήσει σε αυτό το διαμέρισμα, έχω παρατηρείσει κάθε χρόνο τη σταδιακή αύξηση της παρουσίας της αστυνομίας, την εντατικοποίηση της καταστολής. Οι αστυνομικοί άρχισαν να εμφανίζονται σε κάθε γωνιά της γειτονιάς, σε ομάδες, και επίσης ήταν πάνοπλοι. Η αίσθηση του να παρατηρείς πάνοπλους αστυνομικούς σε πλήρη εξάρτηση να μεταφέρουν πιστόλια, όπλα, γκλόμπς, ασπίδες, δακρυγόνα αέρια, και πολυβόλα- γινόταν όλο και πιο έντονη. Σε αυτή την περίοδο άρχισε να εμφανίζεται στους τοίχους το σύνθημα: "σε κάθε γωνία υπάρχει αστυνομία, η χούντα δεν τελείωσε το '73."
Στις 6 Δεκεμβρίου ήμουν εδώ, στο διαμέρισμα με το Γερμανό φίλο μου. Αυτός μαγείρευε στην κουζίνα και εγώ ήμουν στο σαλόνι. Ξαφνικά άκουσα ένα δυνατό «Μπάνγκ»!... Δεν είχα ακούσει κανένα θόρυβο πριν από αυτό. Δεν συνέβαινε τίποτα στους δρόμους, δεν φώναζε κανένας, δεν γινόταν τίποτα. Προειδοποίηση δεν υπήρχε, μόνο ένα «Μπάνγκ»!... Μου φάνηκε ότι ήρθε από κάτω από την οδό, στην αριστερή πλευρά. Παρά την έκπληξη, αυτή τη φορά θυμήθηκα να αρπάξω την κάμερα μου πρώτα. Δεν ήμουν σε πανικό, δεν αισθανόμουν κάτι ασυνήθιστο, πήρα απλά ήρεμα τη φωτογραφική μηχανή και πήγα προς το μπαλκόνι. Εγώ, δεν πίστεψα ότι κάτι εκπληκτικά ασυνήθιστο είχε συμβεί. Κοίταξα έξω, αλλά δεν ενεργοποίησα την κάμερα στην αρχή, διότι τίποτα δεν συνέβαινε. Είδα μερικούς νεαρούς κάτω προς τα αριστερά από το μπαλκόνι μου, καθόντουσαν εκεί όπως κάνουν πάντα. Οι νεαροί αναρχικοί πάντα συχνάζουν σε εκείνη την γωνία αν και αυτό το βράδυ υπήρχαν λιγότεροι από το κανονικό. Και από τη δεξιά πλευρά, στον πάνω δρόμο, είδα ένα περιπολικό να παρκάρει στη γωνία. Μια στιγμή μετά από τότε που κοίταξα το αυτοκίνητο της αστυνομίας, είδα δύο μπάτσους να γυρνάνε πίσω, προς τα κάτω, με τα πόδια, και αυτό ήταν πολύ περίεργο για μένα. Αναρωτήθηκα,....μα, τί πρόκειται να κάνουν; Έφθασαν στο σημείο όπου το περιπολικό ήταν στην αρχή πριν στρίψουν για να το παρκάρουν, και άρχισαν να προκαλούν τα παιδιά, φωνάζοντας «ελάτε ρε μουνιά, ελάτε ρε μουνιά»! Όταν άκουσα αυτό το φώναξα στον φίλο μου τον Γερμανό, «έλα να δείς! Η αστυνομία ήρθε για να ξεκινήσει καυγά!». Θα είχε μια ευκαιρία να δεί αυτό το συχνό φαινόμενο, τους έλληνες μπάτσους να προκαλούν μια μάχη προσβάλοντας ανθρώπους. Είναι πολύ συνηθισμένο ότι η αστυνομία βρίζει τους ανθρώπους, αλλά αυτό ήταν πάρα πολύ. Ήταν προκλητικοί γιατί παρκάρισαν το αυτοκίνητο της αστυνομίας και ήρθαν με τα πόδια πίσω φωνάζοντας βρισιές. Αυτός είναι ο τρόπος που οι άνθρωποι ξεκινούν καβγά. Έμοιαζε λες και είναι ένας προσωπικός καβγάς, όχι όπως οι συνήθεις πρόκλησεις και βρισιές της αστυνομίας.
Αμέσως μετά και οι δύο έβγαλαν τα όπλα τους, και οι δύο μπάτσοι τράβηξαν τα όπλα τους!... Αυτό ποτέ δεν αναφέρθηκε από τα μέσα ενημέρωσης. Και μου ήρθε η μία έκπληξη μετά την άλλη. Πρώτα ήρθαν πίσω με τα πόδια, μετά άρχισαν ένα τσακωμό προσβάλωντας τα παιδιά, μετά έβγαλαν τα όπλα τους, και στη συνέχεια στόχευσαν, σε μια στιγμή που δεν υπήρχε καμία πρόκληση και δεν υπήρχε τίποτα που να αποτελεί απειλή για αυτούς, δεν υπήρχει κάποια σύγκρουση και ούτε καν συνέβαινε κάποια αντιπαράθεση. Και τότε πυροβόλησαν. Άκουσα δύο πυροβολισμούς, αλλά δεν μπορώ να πω αν και οι δύο από τους αστυνομικούς πυροβόλισαν ή ο ένας από αυτούς πυροβόλησε δύο φορές. Είναι πιθανό ότι ένας από αυτούς πυροβόλησε δύο φορές. Και μετά γύρισαν την πλάτη τους και απλά έφυγαν σαν να μην είχε συμβεί τίποτα.
Εμένα, μέχρι εκείνη τη στιγμή, δεν μου είχε χρειαστεί να κοιτάξω αριστερά, στην ομάδα των παιδιών, γιατί ήταν απίστευτα περίεργη η συμπεριφορά αυτών των δύο αστυνομικών. Δεν ήταν ανάγκη να δω από την άλλη πλευρά, από την πλευρά των παιδιών διότι τίποτα δεν συνέβαινε από εκεί. Και τότε άκουσα τον κόσμο στον δρόμο να φωνάζει ότι ένα παιδί είχε πυροβοληθεί. Και τότε ένιωσα πανικό. Έτρεξα στο εσωτερικό του σπιτιού, άρπαξα το τηλέφωνο, κάλεσα ένα ασθενοφόρο, και πήγα αμέσως κάτω στο δρόμο. Είδα μόνο ένα παιδί να βρήσκεται εκεί, και σοκαρίστηκα. Όλος ο κόσμος φώναζε και πολλοί λιποθυμούσαν. Το παιδί δεν ήταν νεκρό ακόμη, και ένας γιατρός είχε εμφανιστεί και προσπαθούσε να του δώσει τις πρώτες βοήθειες. Στη συνέχεια, το ασθενοφόρο έφτασε και το παιδί πέθανε μέσα στο ασθενοφόρο, νομίζω.
Έμαθα από άλλους ανθρώπους που ήταν εκεί ότι η πρώτη έκρηξη που άκουσα ήταν χειροβομβίδα κρότου-λάμψης. Προφανώς κάποιος είχε ρίξει ένα πλαστικό μπουκάλι στο αυτοκίνητο της αστυνομίας και ίσως τους φώναξε κάτι καθώς περνούσαν και οι αστυνομικοί απάντησαν με τη ρίψη της χειροβομβίδας από το περιπολικό. Αυτά δεν είναι τόσο ασυνήθιστα εδώ. Είναι φυσιολογικό κάποιος να φωνάξει, όλοι στην Ελλάδα φωνάζουν ο ένας στον άλλο. Έτσι, είμαι βέβαιη ότι οι αστυνομικοί δεν είχαν απειληθεί, δεν ήταν σε άμυνα, ούτε σε κατάσταση να υπερασπιστούν τον εαυτό τους. Αλήθεια, αν ένας αστυνομικός νιώθει μια σοβαρή απειλή, δεν παρκάρει χαλαρός στην επόμενη γωνία και γυρνάει με τα πόδια να ζητήσει το λόγο για ξεκαθάρισμα. Συνήθως, όταν οι αστυνομικοί σε περιπολικό αισθάνονται απειλή ή αισθάνονται σαν να είναι υπό επίθεση φεύγουν, απομακρύνονται. Η αστυνομία δεν ήταν σε θέση άμυνας εκείνη τη στιγμή.
Πήγα πίσω και προσπάθησα να δω το βίντεο στον υπολογιστή μου, αλλά δεν μπορούσα γιατί μου έλειπε κάποιο πρόγραμμα. Γι 'αυτό και χτύπησα την πόρτα του γείτονά μου και του είπα ότι «έχω γράψει κάτι αλλά δεν ξέρω τί είναι. Μπορούμε να δούμε στον υπολογιστή σου τί είναι; » Και είδαμε το βίντεο, και αυτό που αισθάνθηκα, δεν ένιωσα το είχα ξανανιώσει ποτέ στην ζωή μου. Καλέσαμε όλους τους ανθρώπους από όλη τη γειτονιά να κατέβουν κάτω, όλοι, όλοι κατέβηκαν στους δρόμους, και η ενέργεια, η ατμόσφαιρα, ήταν οργή, Οργή!... Η Οργή ξεχείλιζε στους δρόμους, παντού οι άνθρωποι ξεχείλιζαν από τα σπίτια τους στους δρόμους. Όλοι....
Η αστυνομία είχε το θράσος να έρθει εδώ, πάλι σε αυτή τη γωνιά όπου το πρώτο περιπολικό με τους μπάτσους είχε σταματήσει, στο ίδιο σημείο από όπου πυροβόλισαν. Και φυσικά όλοι άρχισαν να τους φωνάζουν, οι νέοι, οι ηλικιωμένοι, κανονικοί άνθρωποι, όλοι τους φωνάζαν «να πάνε στο διάολο». Περίπου δύο ώρες μετά την δολοφονία, είναι αδύνατο να πω ακριβώς σε πόση ώρα, αλλά ήταν περίπου δύο ώρες ήρθε η μυστική αστυνομία. Ήμουν πίσω στο σπίτι μου και άκουγα το ραδιόφωνο και την τηλεόραση και έλεγαν ότι γίνονται επισόδεια στα Εξάρχεια, ότι η αστυνομία έχει δεχθεί επίθεση και πυροβόλησε σε αυτοάμυνα, αλλά αυτό δεν ήταν αλήθεια. Και οι ταραχές δεν είχαν καν ξεκινήσει ακόμη!... Και από το παράθυρό μου είδα άνδρες χωρίς στολές να εξετάζουν τους τοίχους των κτιρίων γύρω από τη δολοφονία. Η μυστική αστυνομία είχε έρθει για να αναζητήσετε τους κάλλυκες από τις σφαίρες και να ερευνήσει την περιοχή.

Ήμουν με το γείτονα μου, και του είπα ότι θα κατέβω κάτω. Ήθελα να αντιδράσω με κάποιο τρόπο σε όλα αυτά που έλεγαν στις ειδήσεις. Έτσι πήγα κάτω και είπα ότι «όλα αυτά που λένε στην τηλεόραση είναι ψέματα». Ένας ψηλός γέρος με ένα γλειώδες χαμόγελο με πλησίασε, και είπε, «ναι εε..., και ποιά είσαι εσύ;» Και εκείνη την στιγμή αισθάνθηκα έναν απόλυτο τρόμο. Επειδή είμαι πολύ αφελής, ένιωσα απλά την υποχρέωση να κατέβω από το σπίτι μου και να πώ την αλήθεια. Αλλά αυτός ο τύπος, με έκανε να νιώσω πραγματκό τρόμο μόλις με πλησίασε. Για αυτό και αποτραβίχτικα και είπα.... «όχι,....εσείς ποιος είστε;» Και μου είπε το όνομά του και τη θέση του. Ήταν ο αρχηγός της μυστικής υπηρεσίας της αστυνομίας, ο διευθυντής ασφάλειας Αθηνών και ήταν υπεύθυνος για την αυτοψία και την έρευνα της δολοφονίας. Πήρε το όνομα μου και το τηλέφωνο μου, και με ρώτησε αν ήμουν έτοιμη να έρθω στην Γ.Α.Δ.Α. για να καταθέσω, και είπα ναι.
Με ρώτησε τί συνέβη. Τον έφερα στο ακριβές σημείο όπου οι αστυνομικοί στέκονταν όταν άνοιξαν πυρ!.... Και ακριβώς σε εκείνο το σημείο που στάθηκα ήταν που βρήκαν τους κάλληκες από τις σφαίρες. Και με ρώτησε αν είχα ένα όχημα, αν θα μπορούσα να πάω μόνη μου στο τμήμα. Και είπα «δεν έχω» και μου είπαν ότι θα έρθω μαζί τους. Είπα τότε, ότι «ελπίζω δεν θα μας κάψουν ζωντανους μες στο αυτοκίνητο μέχρι να φτάσουμε στην Γ.Α.Δ.Α.» και ο επικεφαλής γέλασε και είπε ότι δεν υπάρχει φόβος. Με κατευθύνω προς μια μεγάλη ομάδα από συγκεντρωμένα Μ.Α.Τ., και βρέθηκα στη μέση μια διμοιρίας Μ.Α.Τ. Ήταν ακριβώς εκείνη τη στιγμή που οι άνθρωποι επιτέθηκαν.

Ο επικεφαλής εξαφανίστηκε αμέσως, έτρεξε μακριά και με άφησε εκεί ενώ οι άνθρωποι έκαναν επίθεση, και είδα όλα τα όπλα που η αστυνομία είχε πάνω της και φρικάρισα!. Δεν μπορούσα να επικεντρωθώ σε τίποτα άλλο...Και ένιωσα όμως και πόσο ισχυροί είναι οι άνθρωποι...Οι άνθρωποι ήταν γεμάτοι με οργή. Δεν μπορώ να θυμηθώ αν είχαν επιτεθεί με πέτρες ή μολώτοφ ή με παλούκια, μόνο ότι ήταν ακατανίκητοι...Θυμάμε και ότι εγώ έπρεπε να βγώ από εκεί ανάμεσα απ’τα Μ.Α.Τ. Έτρεξα μακριά μόνη μου και επέστρεψα στο σπίτι μου. Φυσικά περίμενα ότι θα μου τηλεφωνούσαν να με καλέσουν να καταθέσω ως μάρτυρας. Αλλά αυτό δεν το έκαναν ποτέ. Μίλησα με μια δικηγόρο του κινήματος, την κ.Γιάννα Κούρτοβικ. Και αυτή με συνόδευσε στον ανακριτή. Έπρεπε να πάω εγώ να βρώ τον δικαστή, διότι η αστυνομία ποτέ δεν μου τηλεφώνησε για να καταθέσω. Και μετά τη κατάθεση μου, μερικές ημέρες αργότερα, η αστυνομία έκλεισε πάλι όλη την περιοχή για να κάνουν την πραγματογνωμοσύνη που να αποδεικνύουν αν η σφαίρα χτύπησε κατευθείαν το παιδί ή αν εξοστρακίσηκε στο έδαφος. Αυτή ήταν η επίσημη ιστορία, ότι μόνο ο ένας μπάτσος είχε πυροβολήσει και ότι η σφαίρα αναπήδησε στο έδαφοσ και χτύπησε τον Αλέξη... Ο εισαγγλέας, ο φωτογράφος, και ο γραμματέας ήρθαν στο μπαλκόνι μου για να πάρουν φωτογραφίες.

Και όπως ήμουν πάνω στο μπαλκόνι, μπροστά σε όλο τον κόσμο που παρακολουθούσε την διαδικασία φώναξα τον γενικό διευθυντή και του είπα : « Ω!...γειά σας, με παρατήσατε στην μέση της σύγκρουσης και φύγατε την άλλη φορά»...και αυτός είπε : «Δεν σε παράτησα εγω...Εσύ φοβόσουνα ότι θα μας κάψουν ζωντανούς». Και εγώ τότε του απάντησα: «Μην λέτε ψέματα μπροστά σε όλους τους ανθρώπους...»

Θυμάμαι πριν από μερικά χρόνια, που έλεγα στον εαυτό μου πως ζω σε ένα στρατόπεδο, με όλη αυτή την αστυνομία τριγύρω εδώ στα Εξάρχεια. Τώρα μπορώ να πω ότι ζω σε μια εμπόλεμη ζώνη.

Αυτό που συνέβη τον Δεκέμβριο, δεν πίστευα ποτέ πως θα μπορούσε να συμβεί. Παρ 'όλο το συναισθήμα της στρατιωτικής κατοχής που προκαλούσε και προκαλεί η αστυνομία. Για μένα, πάντα υπήρχε ένα όριο, μια τελική γραμμή, και όταν η αστυνομία διέσχισε τη γραμμή αυτή, συνέβει μια ποιοτική αλλαγή. Όλα άλλαξαν. Καθένας κατάλαβε ότι υπάρχει ένας συγκεκριμένος ορίζοντας στα γεγονότα και πέρα από αυτόν όλα είναι διαφορετικά. Έχουμε περάσει αυτό το ορίζοντα. Και τώρα μπορώ να πω ότι δεν είναι πλέον μια σύγκρουση, τώρα είναι πόλεμος.
Σε σύγκριση με πριν από τον Δεκέμβριο, τα πάντα είναι πιο δυνατά. Η δολοφονία του Αλέξη ήταν η τελευταία σταγόνα. Τώρα δεν υπάρχει ανοχή για την αστυνομία. Η δολοφονία ήταν κάτι τόσο εξωφρενικό που οι άνθρωποι αντέδρασαν και ακόμη συνεχίζουν να αντιδρούν. Παίρνουν δύναμη από την οργή που εκφράστηκε κατά τη στιγμή της δολοφονίας. Υπήρχαν πάρα πολλά άλλα προβλήματα εκτός από την αστυνομική βία, και αυτά τα προβλήματα εξακολουθούν να υπάρχουν. Αλλά οι άνθρωποι δεν ανέχονται πλέον ούτε τα υπόλοιπα προβλήματα....

Έτσι, θα είμαι μάρτυρας στη δίκη του αστυνομικού που σκότωσε τον Αλέξη. Ανησυχώ για το πώς θα αισθάνομαι προς το δικηγόρο που τον υπερασπίζεται, γιατί υπερασπίζεται ένα πολύ κακό άτομο. Μετά, άρχισα να ανησυχώ επίσης για την έκβαση της δίκης, διότι εάν αυτός ο αστυνομικός καταλήξει με μόνο δύο ή τρία χρόνια ή κάποια λίγα χρόνια στη φυλακή, δεν ξέρω πώς θα αντιδράσω. Πώς αντιδράς στην απόφαση μιας τέτοιας δίκης; Πολλά φρικτά πράγματα συμβαίνουν, και ακούμε για αυτά ή τα βλέπουμε στις ειδήσεις, αλλά είναι πολύ διαφορετικό όταν δεις κάτι με τα μάτια σου. Η δολοφονία του Αλέξη δεν είναι απλώς λόγια, είναι μια σαφής αλήθεια για εμάς, δεν υπάρχει καμία αμφιβολία για αυτό, δεν υπάρχει καμία απόσταση από αυτό. Η δολοφονία είναι η απόλυτη αλήθεια, είναι σαν να μου κλέψετε κάτι μπροστά στα μάτια μου και στη συνέχεια να μου πείτε ότι δεν υπήρξε ποτέ. Η δολοφονία αυτή δεν είναι κάτι που ακούσαμε από κάπου αλλού. Και φοβάμαι πάρα πολύ ότι αν δεν καταδικαστεί αυτός ο μπάτσος, ίσως η αντίδρασή μου θα με ρίξει στην φυλακή. Το σκέφτομαι αυτό όλη την ώρα, καθώς ετοιμάζομαι να καταθέσω στην δίκη για την δολοφονία του Αλέξη.

Testimony of Eyewitness of the Assasination of Alexis Grigoropoulos

Testimony of an eyewitness of the assasination of 15 year's old boy Alexis Grigoropoulos from Greek Police that lead to December riots and general social revolt that still going on in Greece. The girl that she speaks in this text unforunately became world famous through the short video she had the bad luck to videotape from her balcony overlooking the spot of the assasination of Alexis and she will be witness against the cop Ep. Korkoneas in his trial. This witness is a fragment from a bigger text and is included in the book "WE ARE AN IMAGE FROM THE FUTURE / The Greek Uprising of December 2009 that will be released in U.S.A. in February 2010 from AK Press and is edited by A.G.Scwartz, Tasos Sagris and Void Network

Testimony of Eyewitness of the Assassination of Alexis Grigoropoulos

I am an Exarchia resident whose balcony overlooks the spot where Alexis Grigoropoulos was murdered

I’m not so involved in any political activities. I’m not an activist. I can only speak about the killing. I can’t take a position on all the other things that happened because all these other things are very complicated and I don’t have clear thoughts on them.

Exarchia has always been an alternative, counterculture neighborhood. For many years it was a frequent occurrence that something would happen on a street corner in Exarchia and suddenly everyone from the cafes and the bars and the sidewalks would pour out into the streets and run to see what was happening. Usually it was incidents between people and police, some fights, confrontations, insults, shouting matches. In the old times it happened very often. Then there was a period when this didn’t happen so much, but in the last years it has started becoming more common again.

The reason that I found myself with a camera on the balcony that night was because I had always wanted to film one of these confrontations that are always taking place below my window. But every time I would come to my balcony to see what was happening, I got delayed. By the time I went back inside to get my camera it was too late, it was already over. This happened to me many times. And the last time that it happened, I said to myself, the next time, first I’ll grab the camera and then I’ll go to the balcony.

And in the end the next time turned out to be an incident that I never expected could happen. Two years earlier a friend visited me from Germany and he mentioned to me that the police here seem very provocative and dangerous. Even though he was a tourist, the way they behaved made him feel less safe, they made him feel endangered. And when this friend heard about what happened on the 6^th of December, he wrote that he wasn’t at all surprised. But I was.

All the previous times, I never got scared observing these fights between people and the police. It was part of my everyday life in Exarchia. It was something commonplace. Because the Exarchia locals express their negation of authority firmly, and they believe in it, whenever something was happening I didn’t need to take a position or make a stand because it was just a part of life in this area. Of course in the ten years that I’ve lived in this flat, I’ve observed year after year a gradual increase in the police presence, an intensification. Policemen began to appear on every corner in the neighborhood, in groups, and also they were armored. The feeling of observing armored police in full riot gear carrying pistols, tear gas guns, and machine guns—it was getting more and more intense. In this period the slogan started to appear on the walls: “on every street corner there are police, the junta didn’t end in ’73.”

On 6 December I was here in the apartment with my German friend. He was cooking in the kitchen and I was in the living room. Suddenly I heard a bang. I hadn’t heard any noises before that. Nothing was happening in the streets, no shouts, nothing. Without warning there was just a bang. It seemed to me that it came from down the street, on the lefthand side. Despite the surprise this time I remembered to grab my camera first. I was not in a panic, I didn’t feel anything unusual, I just calmly got the camera and went to the balcony. I didn’t think anything extraordinary had happened. I looked outside, but I didn’t turn the camera on in the beginning because nothing was happening. I saw a few youths down to the left, sitting like they always do. The young anarchists are always hanging out down there, although this night there were fewer than normal. And on the righthand side, up the street, I saw a police car parked at the corner. One moment after the police car drove off, I saw two cops coming back on foot, and this was very strange to me. I asked myself, what are they going to do? They arrived at the spot where the car had been before, and started provoking the kids, saying come on you pussies! When I heard this I shouted to the German guy, come look! The police came and they’re starting a fight. He would get a chance to see this phenomenon of the Greek cops provoking a fight by insulting people. It’s normal that the police speak bad to people, but this was too much. It was provocative because they parked the police car and they came walking back and shouting challenges. That’s how normal people start a fight. It was like a personal fight, not the usual provocation by police.

Immediately after that they both took out their guns, both the cops. This was never mentioned by the media. And I got one surprise after another. First they came back on foot, then they started a fight by insulting the kids, then they took out their guns, and then they took aim, in a moment when there was no challenge and no threat, there was no fight or confrontation going on. And they shot. I heard two shots but I can’t say if both of them shot or if one shot twice. It’s possible that one of them shot twice. And they turned around and just left, simple as that, as though nothing had happened. Me, until that moment, it didn’t occur to me to look to the left, to the group of kids, because it was all so incredibly strange, the behavior of these two policemen. There was no need to look to the other side because nothing was happening there. And then I heard the people in the street shout that a kid had been shot. And then I felt panic. I ran inside, grabbed the telephone and called an ambulance, and I went down to the street. I saw just one kid lying there, and I was shocked. Everybody was shouting and many people were fainting. The kid wasn’t dead yet, and a doctor had appeared and was trying to administer first aid. Then the ambulance arrived and he died inside in the ambulance, I think.

I found out from other people that the first bang had been a concussion grenade. Apparently someone had thrown a plastic bottle at the police car and yelled an insult as it was passing and the police responded by throwing the grenade from the car. That’s not so unusual here. It’s normal to shout, everyone in Greece is shouting at each other. So I’m sure the policemen hadn’t been threatened, they weren’t defending themselves. Really, if a policeman feels a serious threat, he doesn’t drive down to the next corner then walk back to clean up the situation. Usually when the police feel a threat or feel like they’re under attack, they drive off, they get out of there. The police were not on the defensive at that moment.

I went back up and tried to watch the video on my computer, but I couldn’t because I was missing some program. So I knocked on my neighbor’s door and said I recorded something but I don’t know what it is. Can we put it in your computer so I can see what it is? And we saw the video, and the way I felt, I had never felt that way in my entire life. We called down all the people from the entire neighborhood, everyone, we all came down onto the streets, and the energy, the atmosphere, was one of rage. It was overflowing all the streets, everywhere people were pouring out of their houses onto the streets. Everybody.

The riot police had the gall to come here, back to this corner where the first cop car had stopped, and where the shots were fired. And of course everybody started shouting at them, young people, old people, normal people, everyone was shouting at them to go the hell away.

About two hours after the shooting, it’s impossible to say exactly how long but it was about two hours. The secret police came. I was back in my house listening to the radio and the TV, which were saying there were riots in Exarchia, that the police had been attacked and fired in self-defense, but this wasn’t true. And the riots hadn’t even started yet. And from my window I saw men without uniforms looking at the walls of the buildings around the shooting. The secret police had come to search for the shell casings and the bullets, to investigate the area. I was with my neighbor, and I told him I was going down. I wanted to react somehow to what they were saying on the news. So I went down and I said that what they’re reporting on the television wasn’t true. One tall old guy came up to me with a greasy smile, and said, yes, and who are you? And I felt an amazing fear. Because I’m very naïve, I just felt the obligation to go down and say the truth. But this guy, he terrified me. So I backed off and said, no, who are you? And he told me his name and his position. He was the chief of the secret police agency, and he was in charge of the autopsy and investigation. They took my name and telephone, and they asked me if I was going to come to the central police station to testify, and I said yes.

He asked me what happened. I brought him to the exact point where the policemen were standing when they opened fire. And exactly at that point was where they found the shell casings. And they asked me if I had a vehicle, if I could drive myself to the station. And I said no and they told me I would come with them. I said I hoped the people wouldn’t bomb the police car on the way, and the chief laughed and said have no fear. He directed me to where a large group of riot police were gathered, and I found myself in the middle of a MAT squad. It was right at that moment that the people attacked. The chief disappeared immediately, he ran away and they left me while the people were attacking, and I saw all the guns that the police had and I flipped out. I couldn’t focus on anything, I felt how powerful the people were, they were full of rage. I can’t remember if they were attacking with stones or molotovs or clubs, only that they were overpowering and I had to get out of there. I ran away by myself and came back to my house.

Of course I was expecting that they would call me for an interview as a witness. But they never did. I spoke with a lawyer of the movement, Yianna Kurtovick, she’s one of the members of the Network for the Defense of Political Prisoners and Immigrants. And she brought me to the examining magistrate. I had to go to find the judge because the police never called me to testify. And after I testified, some days later, they closed the whole area to make the official report to prove whether the bullet hit the kid directly or if it richocheted off the ground. That was the official story, that the one cop had fired at the ground and the bullet bounced up and hit him.

The magistrate, the photographer, and the secretary came up to my balcony to take photographs. The chief of the secret police was down in the street. I called out to him, Oh hello, you left me alone last time in the middle of a riot. And he answered, I didn’t abandon you, it was you who was afraid that the rioters would burn us alive. And I said to him, Don’t tell lies in front of all these people.

I remember telling myself some years ago that I lived in a military camp, with all the police around Exarchia. Now I say that I live in a warzone. What happened in December, I never believed that it could ever happen. Despite all the feelings of military occupation provoked by the police. For me, there was always a limit, always a final line, and when the police crossed this line, it was a qualitative change. Everything changed. Everyone understood that there was a certain horizon to the situation and beyond it everything was different. We have passed this horizon. And now I say that it is not a conflict anymore, now it is war.

In comparison with before December, everything is more powerful. The assassination of Alexis was like the cherry on top, the last straw. Now there is no more tolerance for the police. The killing was so outrageous, so far beyond the limits, that the people reacted and still they continue to react. They are getting empowered from the rage that was expressed at the moment of the killing. There were many other problems too besides police brutality, and these problems continue, but the people don’t tolerate these other problems either, not anymore.

So I’ll be in the trial of the policeman who killed Alexis. I was worrying about how I’ll feel towards the defense lawyer, because he’s defending a very bad person. Then I started to worry about the outcome of the trial, because if this cop ends up with only two or three years in jail, I don’t know how I would react. How do you react to the decision of a trial like this? Because many terrifying things are happening, and we hear about them and see them on the news, but it is very different when you saw it with your own eyes. It is not just words, it is a clear truth for you, there is no doubt about this, there is no distance from it. It is such an absolute truth, the assassination, it is like if you steal something from me in front of my eyes and then tell me it never existed. It is not something you just heard about from somewhere else. And I fear very much that if they find this cop not guilty, maybe my reaction will get me thrown in jail. I think about this all the time, as I prepare to testify.