#WORLD #WORLDWIDE #ITALY #ANARCHISM #LIBRARY #News #Journal #Update - (en) #Italy, Galatea FAI: Punishers and shepherd dogs: The modern symbols of the far right on the uniforms of the Hellenic Police. (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 Since the First Kingdom of Greece (1832-1924) , the Hellenic Gendarmerie stood

out for being a conservative and strongly repressive force. This state of affairs
was accentuated after the end of the Greek civil war (1949) and with the
reactionary, conservative and dictatorial governments that were established in
Greece for almost a quarter of a century (1950-1974); the Hellenic Gendarmerie
became increasingly militarized and with functions of social control and
repression. In 1984, ten years after the end of the Dictatorship of the Colonels,
the Gendarmerie and the City Police were merged into a single police force,
becoming the Hellenic Police.
Despite the merger, the repressive, conservative , and containment nature of law
enforcement protests has not faded; even today, the agents and officers of the
Hellenic Police are molded with a strongly militarist, racist, nationalist and
macho ideology. The result of these influences are manifested in the streets
where members of the Police wear symbols that refer to neo-fascist and neo-Nazi
ideologies on their uniforms and use brutal violence against protesters and
marginalized people.

In the article we present, published by "The Manifold" - a Greek journalistic
investigative group -, this problem of symbols is related and how any Code of
Behavior or "inclusive" of the Hellenic Police is mere waste paper or political
ideological screen.

Note
To make certain phrases and terms flow smoothly, we have made some slight
modifications, adding square brackets where we deemed it appropriate. We are
aware, and we apologize in advance, if the translation of the article is not
accurate.
Although we are not native speakers, we have used as study materials:
-"Modern Greek-Italian Dictionary, Italian-Modern Greek" edited by Alexìou
Vassilikì, Kolonia Amalìa and Migardu Anna, De Agostini, 2011;
-"Modern Greek grammar. Volume One: Phonetics and Morphology" by Filippo Maria
Pontani, 2000;
- Wiktionary English and Greek versions

The Punisher's skull symbol, along with the 1* ("one ass to risk") symbol on a
police officer's uniform.

Listing a series of symbols that many Greek police officers wear on their
uniforms,[we find]the "traditional" far-right and neo-Nazi symbols[and also
those]that come from various subcultures, mainly related to the American
far-right , to the anti-Islamism of the US military and the reaction of the US
police[against]the Black Lives Matter movement.

The police in Greece have systematically - and often programmatically -
identified themselves with reactionary ideologies both before and after the "
Metapolitefsi " 1 , while historical and journalistic research has highlighted a
body of evidence on the strong and enduring links of the police with the extreme
right . These official police ties have been highlighted many times through the
symbols on their uniforms, showing how they are associated with various far-right
ideas.

However, in recent years, the development of social media has led to two parallel
phenomena: on the one hand, more and more citizens[photograph and film]the police
force at every opportunity exercising their functions[- especially]on cases of
arbitrariness of the police -, on the other hand, the police officers themselves
use social networks to share a large volume of audiovisual material of their
daily life on duty.

Thus, by collecting photographs from the Internet, we are able to list a great
variety of ideological symbols that police officers wear in their uniforms; which
brings us to two observations: firstly, this practice, namely the flaunting of
intolerant ideologies by police officers, seems to be very general and shows
that[they]do not feel they have to obey the regulation of the own body or to fear
that they will be monitored by their superiors.

Secondly, next to the more "traditional" far-right and/or neo-Nazi symbols, now
appear in the uniforms of the Greek police other symbols from various
subcultures, mainly associated with the American far right, the anti-Islamism of
the US military and the American police backlash[against]the Black Lives Matter
(BLM) movement.

The Punisher and other urban legends

"I haven't broken the law, I am the law" exclaimed Sylvester Stallone in the role
of Judge Dredd, in the eponymous film about the hero of the 70s created by John
Wagner. But even though Dredd has entered the pantheon of good[character]culture
alongside other heroes who are often Copaganda 2 figures - like the Terminator
and RoboCop -, "vigilante" cops everywhere seem to have chosen an anti-hero as
their symbol. .

In his autobiography, "American Sniper" (2012), the US marine Chris Kyle
describes his mission and his actions in Iraq using the symbol of the Punisher,
hero of the well-known Marvel comic book publisher.

ho killed his family shortly after his return from Afghanistan - where he had
served. Although the Punisher, as a comic book hero, had no sympathy for
far-right or neo-Nazi rhetoric and was frustrated with the US police, his taking
"the law into his own hands" made his skull and crossbones a ideal symbol for
police and military officers who wanted to convey the same message.

The symbol of the Punisher

The symbol has thus become synonymous with the far right, so much so that in 2020
one of its creators, Gerry Conway, asked the world to reappropriate it as a
symbol of the movements and worked with BLM activists in the United States. In
2022 Marvel redesigned and replaced the symbol in its comics[-own]due to its use
by far-right groups.

Here is an example of the material we identified with variations of this symbol
on the uniforms of the Greek Police and on a patrol of the Emergency Response
Police. 3

Top left: Police officer with Punisher symbol on shoulder | Top right: Variant of
the Punisher in the colors of the Greek flag, worn by a policeman in a police car
| Bottom left: Police officers carrying a Verghina sun flag 4 (left) and a
variant Punisher symbol along with an ancient Greek helmet (right) | Bottom
right: A Di.As5 police officer poses with the Punisher symbol on his uniform.

Top left: a policeman from the Di.As team. wears the Punisher symbol on his
uniform | Top right: Hellenic Police motorcycle policeman with Punisher symbol on
his uniform | Bottom left: Police officer wearing the Punisher's symbol (variant
with Greek flag design) on his uniform | Bottom right: the Punisher's symbol on
an Emergency Response patrol. (source: Twitter)

Other American soldiers, more real than the Punisher, who returned to the United
States brought with them a plethora of hate symbols on their uniforms
-[later]found on the uniforms of the Hellenic Police.

Two of the most characteristic[symbols]we have found belong to the category of
"crusaders". Both bear the word "infidel", while the second is accompanied by the
symbol of the Punisher, together with the phrase "I am the infidel you have been
warned about, I do not come to bring peace, but the sword". Both versions of the
symbol are held by the Ku Klux Klan and were used extensively during US Army
operations in Afghanistan.

Left: A police officer at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki wears the
words "Infidel" on his uniform - Source: @teacherdude/twitter | Right: A police
officer during a detainee transfer wears the Punisher symbol on his uniform with
the words "infidel" in Arabic and "I am the infidel you have been warned about. I
do not come to bring peace, but the sword."

Another symbol we found on the uniform of a Greek police officer reads "if you
heard the shot, then I wasn't aiming at you", a phrase that is often associated
with US, Canadian and British military personnel, and which often appears
alongside the Punisher symbol.

A police officer from the Special Crime Prevention and Suppression Squad carries
a symbol with the phrase "if you heard the shot, I didn't aim at you"

A Velcro sticker worn by a Greek policeman also arrived from the United States,
with the inscription "SHEEPDOG", which refers to the phrase "either sheep or
shepherd dog". Other stickers we found read "if you want peace, prepare for war"
and "I'd rather be judged by twelve than be carried by six". This last phrase,
common in "above the law" police cultures, means that[a person]would rather face
charges of breaking the law than be killed. 6

Left: Policeman on motorcycle, probably from Di.As, with the "SHEEPDOG" symbols
and the ancient helmet with the inscription "Molon Labe"7 | Right: Action Squad 8
policeman wearing his uniform with the following symbols: "SI VIS PACEM PARA
BELLUM" ("if you want peace, prepare for war"), the Punisher symbol (top) and "
I'd rather be judged by twelve than be carried by six" (bottom)

The thin blue line

"A fine line that separates order from chaos" seems to be the motivation behind
one of the best-known far-right symbols used in recent years by police officers
around the world. Known as the "thin blue line" or "thin blue line",[the
symbol]is worn as a badge by police officers; it refers to the belief that it is
they, as representatives of the law, who allow society to function legally.

There are many instances where we find this symbol on the uniforms of Greek
police officers[- as]in a photo of Action Squad police officers together with
former members of the "New Democracy" party, Konstantinos Bogdanos and Afroditi
Latinoupoulou.

Top left: Police officer of the Group Z Emergency Response Team with the "thin
blue line" symbol in its Greek version | Top right:

Police officer wearing the "thin blue line" symbol in its Greek version | Bottom:
Duty police officer, probably Action Squad, wearing the thin blue line symbol in
a modified flag on his uniform. The photo was taken during a visit by K. Bogdanos
and A. Latinoopoulou.

There are even cases where the "thin blue line" is directly linked to opposing
anti-racist movements like "Black Lives Matter" and[supporting]its "police"
counterpart, "Blue Lives Matter", while in other cases it symbolizes the code of
silence 9 that members of the security forces observe in the event that a
colleague is accused of having acted outside his duties.

Ancient Greek helmet symbol on a policeman's uniform, combined with the "thin
blue line" in its Greek variant

Because of the significance of the "thin blue line", some police departments in
the United States have banned its use on personnel uniforms.

We stay in Europe

However, we have also identified influences from Europe on the symbols of hate
and police arbitrariness - particularly from the Nazi and 'Aryan'
tradition.[Examples are]a tattoo of a red cross of the Order of the Knights
Templar tattooed[on the arm of]a Riot Squad policeman and the letters "SS" on the
helmet of a police officer.


Left: Riot police officer with a tattoo of the red iron cross of the Knights
Templar in front of the Athens Court of Appeal. Further back, a colleague wears
the Punisher symbol - Source: in.gr | Right: Police officer with the letters "SS"
on his helmet

In December 2020 the brass knuckle symbol with the inscription XXXI[on the
helmets]of the men of the Action Squad in Exarchia caused a sensation; but we
cannot confirm that the Latin numbers (31 in Arabic) are a reference to Korps Ems
10 , one of the battalions of the Wehrmacht.


Platoon of Police Officers from the Action Squad wearing the brass knuckle
symbol[with XXXI lettering]on their helmets

In a similar, albeit less imaginative aesthetic, several variants of symbols
appear depicting ancient Greek helmets and helmets, the most common of which is
the variant accompanied by the inscription "Molon Labe".

Left: Policeman on motorcycle with helmet symbol and "Molon Labe" written on his
uniform. Right: A policeman wears a helmet symbol with a Kalashnikov-type weapon
and the inscription "Molon Labe" on his uniform, and a second symbol with a skull
and crossbones.

Left and Center: Ancient Greek helmets on on-duty police uniforms | Right:
Policing Officer 11 with a collection of helmets and skulls on his uniform

Athens, Thessaloniki and the border

The data and material we have extracted is available on police officers' social
profiles and on their digital community pages. We also occasionally identify the
material contained in the photos posted by photojournalists on their pages and
that posted by the media.

Helmet symbol on police helmets. Source: ?????? of Crete

Although the vast majority of police officers serve in Athens and Thessaloniki,
it is interesting to note that these symbols also appear on[uniforms of]border
guards, of police officers serving in refugee reception or detention centres, as
well as on[those]of coast guard members who have served as FRONTEX liaison officers.
Policemen of the Special Squad for the Prevention and Suppression of Crime on
duty in Lesbos at the Kara Tepe facility. One of them wears the Punisher symbol
on his uniform (Source: Facebook, General Directorate of the Regional Police of
Epirus)

Left:[Agent of the]Coast Guard on duty with Punisher symbol on uniform | Right:
Greek border guards in Evros; two of them wear the Punisher symbol on their uniform

Law and reality In recent years, the legal framework regarding the uniforms of
police officers and under what circumstances they could[and can]wear the
mentioned symbols is quite confusing. However, there has so far been no attempt
to stop police officers from wearing hate symbols on their uniforms, and no
disciplinary action has been taken when this has been discovered.

Left: A Task Force Crime Prevention and Suppression Officer on duty carries a
unit emblem with skull and crossbones and Punisher emblem | Right: Flag modified
with a helmet and the inscription "Molon Labe" and the Punisher symbol on a
helmet of a Di.As officer.

With the modification of the Decision n. 7012/6/103/5-7-2009 "Police personnel
uniform" of April 2021 and the related transmission sent by the Hellenic Police
Headquarters, clarifies that " any placement of emblems, insignia, accessories,
badges[...]not prescribed, beyond what is specified , is contrary to this
regulatory framework and constitutes a disciplinary offense, punishable under the
law 120/2008 "Disciplinary law of police personnel" .

Apart from not being foreseen, many of these symbols - especially those hate
symbols - are also subject to the provisions of anti-racist legislation, as they
can stimulate or incite acts or actions which may cause discrimination, hatred or
violence. At the same time, they contradict the Code of Conduct for Police
Officers, which states that " avoiding prejudice based on skin colour, gender,
national origin, ideology and religion, sexual orientation, age, disability,
marital status, economic and social status or any other distinguishing feature of
the individual is an essential aspect of the conduct of a police officer. " 12

Left: An on-duty police officer wears a bloody helmet symbol with the inscription
"Molon Labe" | Middle: a policeman carries a modified symbol of the Greek flag
with the Sun of Vergina | Right: Stickers of modified flags on police helmets.
The inscription "Patrio Religia Famiglia" and a double Roman ax (on the left) and
one depicting Crete (on the right) are visible.

During the writing of this report we asked the following questions to the Press
Office of the Hellenic Police:

1 - Is the leadership of the Hellenic Police aware of the general practice of
police officers to display far-right symbols on their uniforms?

2 - Is the Hellenic Police leadership concerned that this practice indicates the
existence of illegal violent attitudes and other types of wantonness within the
police ranks?

3 - Does the Hellenic Police leadership intend to take measures to eliminate this
practice?

At the time of posting, we have not received any response.

The use of these symbols does not only go beyond the institutional framework of
the Hellenic Police. It is also claimed that police officers, in the performance
of their duties, represent their far-right ideological identifications, which
they not only do not consider a private matter, but perceive as an integral part
of their identity as police officers.

Furthermore, if we consider the origin of the most recent symbols (US police and
army, superheroes) and their cinematic, television and play mythologizing, one
wonders how exactly these police officers perceive the reality of their mission.

Notes of the Galatea Anarchist Group

1 Translation "Regime Change". We refer to that period of modern Greek history
that goes from the fall of the military junta of Papadopoulos to the transitional
period shortly after the parliamentary elections of 1974.

2 Union of the words "cop" and "propaganda"; the term describes the production
and promotion in the media, cinematic films, TV series, articles and reports that
aim to create a positive impression of the work of the police and police officers.

3  It is a unit of the Greek Police. Its mission is crime prevention and
suppression, continuous patrol to maintain security and order.

4 The Vergina Sun (also known as Vergina Star) is an ancient Greek symbol
depicted on various archaeological finds such as vases and coins. It became known
through its depiction on a golden urn found in 1977 in a royal tomb attributed to
the Macedonian royal dynasty of Philip II and Alexander the Great. In the past
years the Vergina Sun has caused numerous diplomatic clashes between the
so-called North Macedonia and Greece as the former had used this symbol in their
national flag. Although the diplomatic problem has been resolved, the Greek
fascists and Nazis are claiming today the Sun of Vergina as belonging to the
glorious national past.

5 In Greek Ou; translation of "Squad of Police on Two Wheels". Department created
in March 2010 to prevent, control, repress violent and criminal actions such as
homicides, robberies, etc.

6 As explained by "Urban Dictionary", " being judged by 12 people means going to
court and being tried by a jury of 12 people, as happens in all trials. Being
carried by 6 people means being dead. It is common for 6 people to carry a coffin
(3 on each side) to and from the hearse. " Link:
https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=I%27d%20rather%20be%20judged%20by%2012%20than%20carried%20by%206

7 Translation into Italian "Come and take them". According to Plutarch, this
sentence was uttered by the king of Sparta Leonidas I in response to the request
to surrender the weapons made by the Persian king Xerxes during the battle of
Thermopylae. The translation of the entire verse, inserted in the "Spartan
Apofthegms" of Plutarch's "Moralia", is as follows: "When Xerxes sent him another
letter, ordering him to hand over his weapons, he replied: Come and get them!"
(Ancient Greek: ). The phrase "Molon Labe" was often used in the military, namely
in the two world wars, the Greco-Turkish war of 1919-1922 and the Cypriot war of
independence (1955-1959)

8  It is a unit of the Greek Police established in November 2019. It is a rapid
response crime prevention and suppression team. It initially patrolled the
Exarchia neighborhood of Athens; later their field of action extended throughout
the city of Athens and Thessaloniki. The unit has been heavily criticized for the
brutality and arbitrariness of their actions.

9 The "Blue Wall of Silence" is the process or practice by which police officers
support colleagues who have committed a violation. One of the most typical
manifestations of this practice is the silence maintained during internal
investigations into the actions of their colleagues.

10 Known as "XXXI Armee-korps z.b.V.". It was established in March 1945; operated
in the German region of Weser-Ems (on the border with Holland) against British
troops until the capitulation of Germany. According to today's Nazi-fascist
mythology, this German corps distinguished itself in the fight against the Allies
and, consequently, as a symbol of resistance to the "plutocratic and Jewish powers".

11 They are a special division of the Greek police whose main role is that of
riot control.

12 "Code of conduct of the police officer", Article 5 "Serving the citizens",
paragraph 3. Link:
https://www.astynomia.gr/images/stories/Attachment14238_KOD_FEK_238A_031204.pdf

https://gruppoanarchicogalatea.noblogs.org/post/2022/12/15/punitori-e-cani-da-pastore-i-moderni-simboli-dellestrema-destra-sulle-uniformi-della-polizia-ellenica/
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