The leader of the Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA) Alexis Tsipras paid a long electioneering visit on Monday to the Athens area Police HQ building (GADA).
Both the police and their headquarters are absolutely hated by Greek workers and youth as the centre of the barbaric attacks, with clubs and tear gas on demonstrators, literally thousands of whom have been detained in the last three years.
During his visit Tsipras stated that the EC-IMF Accords ordered the police to ‘oppress the reactions of our people to the disastrous policies of the Accord’.
Tsipras added that the job of police is in the neighbourhoods. ‘There must be trust built between citizens and the police,’ he said.
Asked about armed police, Tsipras replied that ‘police should bear arms where there is crime, not in oppressing the reactions of the people’.
The GADA building is the base of the armed riot police which have been in the frontline of the attacks against demonstrators, and Tsipras visited the operations centre.
He said that he agreed with police chiefs that there are ‘dangers stemming from some pockets in the lower ranks of the police’.
But during his visit Tsipras refused to point out or refer to his own party’s policies contained in SYRIZA’s programme, where it is stated that the riot police should be disbanded, that tear gas must not be employed by police who must not carry arms at demonstrations.
