The attack on PAME was planned

The Police attacks the PAME rally at the "Fix" juncture

The attack on PAME was planned

Rizospastis, Friday, 17 July 2015

The Tsipras government has been exposed following the police attack, on July 15, against the PAME rally. The attack took place as the Parliament was discussing the third Memorandum. Besides immediate experience, the collection of data regarding the attack leads to the conclusion that the attack was well planned. The police acted on a command plan and with the clear goal not only of emptying the area outside the Parliament, but of beating protesters far away from the Parliament. A characteristic example is the attack by police "Delta" teams, which took place at the "Fix" juncture, kilometers away from the Parliament, and at a time when the protesters were folding up their banners.

All the data leads to the same conclusion: well before the attack, groups of 6-7 members were spotted spread around the Syntagma plaza. At about 9 pm, i.e, at the time in which Parliament discussion was scheduled to start, a group placed near the Grand Britania hotel began throwing stones at police forces that were placed near the flower stores. As streets were empty of protesters, both toward Panepistimiou street, which was empty, and toward Georgiou street, which was empty as well,  the police opted to turn the initial small group of supposed anarchists toward the main body of the protest, using tear gas for that purpose. 

What followed was a mass hurling of molotov cocktails, which had evidently been stored in nearby spots. This time, the Police responded by throwing any chemical it had, while, at the same time, flash bombs began to be thrown at the main body of the protest.  

PAME forces on Amalias street, heading toward Syntagma plaza, began to move toward Zappeion and the Olympian Zeus columns in orderly fashion. From that point on, police and "anarchists" functioned as a single team. They attacked the body of the protest in order to disperse it. They did not achieve that, and the protest got to the "Fix" juncture in discliplined formation. At that point, the "Delta" force of the police abandoned any pretext (i.e, that they were supposedly chasing "anarchists") and brutally attacked PAME protesters. The cool attitude of the demo safeguarding team prevented the worst from happening, leaving the government exposed for the fact that one of the prerequisites of Memorandum implementation, the repression of the worker movement, was pursued under its own command.