Let us tell you a few words about our new investigation…
Police violence and impunity is a chronic problem, systematically underreported in the media, that severely undermines the quality of Greek democracy. Some members of The Manifold have been researching it for over ten years. They have reported that in dozens of incidents, including murder and torture by police officers, perpetrators were either exonerated or received extremely lenient punishment both in internal disciplinary inquests and in the criminal courts.
But, let’s be honest, while it is underreported, police violence is not exactly a secret — especially for the authorities themselves. Stories such as this one, written by our members Mariniki Alevizopoulou and Augustine Zenakos three years ago, have shocked people, but things have not changed. We don’t claim to have a complete strategy — much less a solution — to counter the failure of the political leadership and the judiciary to address the issue. So, what do we plan to do?
As with other critical social issues, we believe that for many people the gravity of the problem is lost in a news cycle that, when it is not subservient to political affiliations and therefore purposefully hushes things up, prioritises speed over depth. We will make two things in one: first, we’ll pull all significant evidence on police violence and impunity into a resource of stories, case studies, interviews and relevant documents; then, we’ll turn this resource into a monitor, following up on every case of police violence and publishing all developments as they unfold.
We have already drafted our research and publication strategy for this project, which also involves a collaboration with some esteemed colleagues.
We’ll tell you more soon!