Riots and Tear Gas

To spare myself the trouble, I'll post what I submitted as an Argus feature.

When I decided to study abroad in Athens, my intentions were met with skepticism due to the financial crisis currently ravaging Greece. My response was always that I would be out of harm’s way, that I would be fine. I continued feeling that way for my first few weeks here; until I was tear gassed by riot police.

As you may know, Greece is on the verge of bankruptcy. As a result, the Greek Parliament was forced to take a vote Sunday on whether to pass austerity measures and receive an international bailout. It’s a large decision that will impact Greece for years to come, so public interest was high and passionate, with more than a hundred thousand protesters out in the streets.

I was observing and photographing the “peaceful” demonstrations when Molotov cocktails started to fly, the crowd began to advance toward parliament, and the riot police decided to fight back.

It’s a funny feeling, seeing what looks like smoke going out over a crowd and realizing simultaneously that not only is that tear gas, but that you are in a mob and can’t get away. Luckily, we were not hit hard by the gas and it was quickly neutralized by Greeks who come prepared for these riots.

As the day continued, the riots only got worse. After retreating to our apartment fifteen minutes away from the riots, we started to follow the stories online. Live feeds revealed stores and buildings on fire, streets torn up and open conflict between police and more than six thousand hooded anarchists.

Greece as we know it today is the product of a post-WWII civil war. The losers, the anarchists, are still a strong political presence in the country, and often take normally peaceful protests in a violent direction, as evidenced by the sort of destruction that happened Sunday.

We don’t seem to have this sort of riot in the United States. Maybe there are some demonstrations on Wall Street or in Washington, but for the most part we are unviolent and many of us are even apathetic. However, I think that that is because the economic crisis in the US is relatively mild compared to that in Greece.

Essentially, by saying no, Greece would default, go bankrupt, and send ripples throughout the world economy. In much the same way the United States was forced to raise its debt ceiling, Greece had little choice other than to say yes.

However, despite the necessity of the bailout to ensure the government’s survival, the restrictions that it requires will fall upon the backs of the Greek people. In order to receive the 130 billion euro bailout (~$176 billion), Greece was forced to lower its minimum wage by twenty percent and cut 3.3 billion euros ($4.35 billion) from jobs, wages and pensions this year alone.

As you can imagine, that sort of cut is not one that is well received by anyone, much less the people of an already poor country. In the Athenian way, the people flooded the streets in order to protest the bill- some peacefully, some not-so-peacefully.

Walking along the streets in the aftermath of the riot made me realize just how glad I am to be from America. Greece is nice to visit, but the problems that are ravaging its economy and its people will last for a long time. I know that right now I am still safe, but in the future, when things are only projected to get worse, I do not know if that feeling of safety will last.