WORLD WORLDWIDE GREECE - news journal UPDATE - (en) Greece, Thessaloniki, March for the 6 years since the murder of Zack Kostopoulos by Zackie Oh (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 On September 21, 2018, Zack Kostopoulos / Zackie Oh was murdered in the

center of Athens! after being lynched by respectable citizens and police
officers. From the very first moment there were attempts to cover up the
murder by cops and media. News reports and broadcasts frantically tried
to give Zack's killers the alibi of self-defense. Day and night they
presented him as a would-be robber and drug addict, in order to activate
the conservative reflexes of racism against drug addicts, in order to
politically defend this particular murder from the side of sovereignty.
Their vulgarity even reached the point of calling viewers during a live
show, to vote if the jeweler did the right thing. Unabashed lies were
spread, such as that he was carrying a knife, that he tried to attack
EMS paramedics with broken glass, that he died of a drug overdose, or
that he died from an injury caused by the windows he broke. Remarkably,
the cops never bothered to seal off the crime scene, as they always do,
leaving the jeweler to clean up potential evidence.

All these claims turned out to be false. As it was seen in the video,
Zak was not holding a knife. He did not attempt to steal, as no
fingerprints were found either on the cash register or on the
merchandise in the store. He wasn't a threat to anyone since he couldn't
even stand up. Also according to the result of the toxicology tests, no
narcotic substance was detected that may be related to his death. The
medical examiner of the case confirmed the exact cause of death, the
murder of Jacques to be precise, which according to his conclusion was
"ischemic-type myocardial lesions, causally related to the multiple
injuries sustained by the deceased".

This year, the trial for the second-degree murder of Zak Kostopoulos
ended with an infuriating verdict. The court once again ruled that the
murderous attack on Jacques was fatal bodily harm and not manslaughter,
reducing the sentences of the two defendants. Specifically, the broker
was sentenced to 6 years in prison and the jeweler to 5 years, with the
latter serving his sentence under house arrest. Mitigating factors such
as the victim's previous cohabitation and "inappropriate" behavior were
recognized. At the original trial, held three and a half years after the
murder, the Joint Jury had decided by a vote of 5-2 to impose a sentence
of 10 years for grievous bodily harm, without parole. The family's
request to change the charge to homicide and the recognition of racial
motivation were rejected, while the four accused police officers were
acquitted.

We can have no illusions about civil justice. The right of those from
below can only really prevail when the existing social relationships are
overturned. In the existing condition, where the law of the bourgeois
class prevails, it is obvious to everyone that even if the pillars of
the dominant political and economic system happen to be prosecuted, they
either get away with it (many times, in fact, reversing the indictment
towards the victims/accusers). or they "go soft". Thus, all four police
officers were acquitted, whose eulogy was made by both the competent
prosecutor himself and official police officials. In fact, when the
president of the Athens police officers, Demosthenes Pakos, was asked if
he thinks that excessive force was used in the treatment of Zak
Kostopoulos by the police, he replied that "This is the practice.
Whoever likes it. Anyone who doesn't like it...", while the general
secretary of the Special Guards, Stratos Mavroidakos, added that "They
are doing their job perfectly. The policeman will not go with a rose to
handcuff someone."

In the current juncture, it is obvious that the state has taken the
political option to give the police "free rein". Implementing this
government plan the police thresh unmolested and arbitrarily at every
possible opportunity, using excessive and thoughtless violence on a
daily basis. He attacks marches before they even begin, without any
pretext. Every summer, when half the country is left to burn without
firefighters and fire fighting equipment, he undertakes the "evacuation"
of the villages: to threaten and intimidate the residents. He executes
minors or barely adult Roma for not paying EUR20 for gas or for stealing
something, as if the cops are sheriffs in the Wild West. It acts as an
occupation army in Exarchia, to contribute to the tourist gentrification
of the neighborhood and the construction of a subway that will encroach
on the square. He has camped on the campuses of the major university
institutions, to provide cover for the OPPI (university police), who
will be tasked with the task of suppressing student protests,
sterilizing the universities and depoliticizing the students, in order
to bring the universities completely under the interests of capital, to
exclude thousands of young men and women from higher education and from
the labor market based on class criteria. Now every police patrol can
develop into a crescendo of violence and repression. A year ago,
58-year-old Kostas Manioudakis was brutally beaten by TAE Souda
policemen during a routine check on the Fre-Vryson provincial road and
ended up dead. There followed a concerted effort by the police, coroners
and local media to present his death as the result of indisposition and
to cover up the murderous attack, even the blows to the head were
attributed to a fall. Finally this year, a year later, the Prosecutor,
despite the official claim of the Police, prosecuted 4 involved police
officers of the Souda Police Operations Department for intentional
homicide in a calm state of mind. In 2024, the police repeatedly cracked
down on student rallies and demonstrations against the privatization of
universities. It is clear that the government is betting on
strengthening the police and repression in order to create the necessary
tension that will rally its conservative and far-right audience. They
are dangerous, and they and their cops. We must not allow them to
achieve their political plan on our own backs, because their attacks are
aimed at the oppressed and especially those who struggle against the
policies of brutality and impoverishment, against the state and capital.

Beyond the tyranny and violence of the state and capital, it is
important for the world of struggle, the exploited and the oppressed to
resist and fight against the social cannibalism fostered by the
capitalist system. The system for which individual property is
considered more important than human life. We must break these
perceptions and attitudes in the entire social field in which we move
and live: on the streets, at work, in schools and colleges, in our
neighborhoods. Let us respond with class unity and solidarity among
those from below to all sorts of Mr. Pantelis who believe that their
property is worth more than human life. To those who find it reasonable
for someone to die because they stole or attempted to steal or because
they are gay, drug addict, immigrant or anything outside of their
standards. To those who sit idly by and watch or videotape the martyrdom
of a helpless human being and do nothing to stop it.

We are committed to continue the struggle of Zach Kostopoulos, an active
activist for the rights of the lgbtqia+ community and HIV positive
people, against racism, social marginalization, patriarchy, conservatism
and social fascism fostered by state and capitalist brutality. Let us,
therefore, thicken the lines of social and class struggles and fight
collectively for the revolutionary transformation of existing social and
productive relations, for a society of freedom, equality and solidarity,
so that we can definitively get rid of the sick interest of the
capitalist system.

NOT TO GET USED TO DEATH - FIGHT FOR LIFE

BACK CANNIVALS

PROGRESS FOR THE 6 YEARS SINCE THE MURDER OF ZACK KOSTOPOULOS/ZACKIE OH:
SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 21 | 19:00 | STATUE OF VENIZELOS
*We support the Collective bloc for libertarian feminism Rabbia Viola

Freedom Initiative of Thessaloniki
blog: libertasalonica.wordpress.com
mail: lib_thess@hotmail.com

https://libertasalonica.wordpress.com/2024/09/20
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