Y R they riotg?

(This post has been linked in worldfocus)

Here's an email I was sent recently...

A relative living abroad: "Y R they riotg?"

I answered:
in athens, the inner city suburb of EXARCHIA is known as a youth trouble spot. it's patrolled by police regularly, but the police are so badly trained and/or receive bad orders, that the police station has been razed a few times.

some dudes had attacked a police car on saturday night. the police shooed them away, but they came back again. before they were set on again, the police fired a grenade and a few shots in the air. one killed a 15 (or maybe 16 or possibly 17 but also could be 14 - the greek news reporters can NEVER make up their mind about age) year old boy.

as you can imagine, this inspired those dudes and their supprters (anarchists, extreme supporters of political parties, hooligans, vandalists, and other terror-inspiring groups in society) to further the trouble, with the police unable to do anything, since their reputation has been tarnished already, and unfortunately the rioting spread right around the country. some schools have been closed in protest and sympathy to the boy's family (what right the students have to take the law into their own hands beats me), some universities have been under siege (hey, anything to stage a sit-in, thereby destroying everything tangible on the premises, and because of the asylum law operating on university premises, no one can stop anyone from doing anything, and they NEVER get caught), and shops and banks have been razed, looted and generally destroyed.

this has come at a bad time - before christmas, economic crisis, etc - and unfortunately, the police, already having earned a bad reputation, is now facing collapse, as is the government - i'm gald i dont live in athens, but the rest of the country isnt any better at the moment...

REPLY:
Sounds like they need to build some more movie theatres in Athens to give the youths something better to do in their spare time.

My response:
dont forget that it is only a minority (more like a handful) of thugs that go out purposely in groups on a saturday night and raid, raze, terrorise etc on the street (and especially the street in question, where there have been many outbreaks of violence over many years), but i would have to agree that it isnt always the fault of the police. maybe this time, the police were at fault, they acted stupidly, but generally speaking, as a mother myself, and you know how you were raised by your greek parents, i think some people should ask their kids more questions: they need to know what their children are doing on a saturday night, where they're going, and who they're going with. the kid that was killed was 15 - surely his parents had every right in the world to ask him the above questions. after all, they supply him with his pocket money to go out...

the tv hasnt said anything about the issue i've raised here - it's politically incorrect to mention this when teh child's family in suffering their worst nightmare. but it reminds me of when madeleine mccann disappeared: it took a while before people started asking what the parents were doing, leaving three under-4s in a hotel unit on their own while they went out and had a good time themselves.

why is it that when you send your kids on a school trip, you are obliged to sign a paper saying that you are responsible for them during the trip, even though the children will not be accompanied by you (only the by the state-employed teachers)? how, then, can you allow the state to be responsible for your child on a saturday night, out and about on the town? i dont know where the child lived, but that is not the point - how much did his parents know about his whereabouts that night?

ps there are plenty of cinemas, but at 7 euro a screening, it's more economical to buy the dvd when it comes out...