Alexis, as in Polytechnio

The rapid developments in the fight against terrorism create an explosive coctail, since today marks two years since the murder of 15-year-old student Alexis Grigoropoulos. The Greek Police are on alert status in a coordinated attempt to avoid situations of vandalism and destruction.

Police work gets even more difficult because they fear that from this evening’s large student rallies at Propylaea, some anti-authoritarians, or those supporting yesterday's arrestees or the apprehended members of  theCores of Fire and the Revolutionary Fight groups, might take advantage of the situation to create chaos.

Officials from the General Police Headquarters of Athens have been meeting for the last few days in order to come up with an action plan based once again on the zero tolerance dogma.

According to valid information, thousands of police officers have been on alert since yesterday, while almost the entire Attica force will take part in the action plan. «We will follow the plan of the Polytechnio anniversary mainly. The orders to the heads of the forces are to be discreet and not provocative. Of course, if any incident occurs their reaction will be swift» says an official from Headquarters.
 
DI.AS., DELTA and FD

So from this morning thousands of officers are on duty. The majority will come from the Police Operations Division.

There will be squads from YMET, YAT and OPKE. DI.AS. and DELTA squads will play an important role, since they will be patrolling every street of the extended center of Athens with their beacons turned on. Officers from the Police force, the street police, the local police stations and the SEFEAA are completely occupied with the events around the march and the protestors.  

Finally, the plan includes a large contribution from the Fire Department. Vehicles and personnel are on their pre-assigned posts ready to be used if needed, while two prosecutors divided in shifts will also be on alert.

Target guarding and street closing

As it happens in such cases, the plan of the police is divided into many parts.

The first part is the guarding of the Polytechnic, the American Embassy, the Parliament, and government buildings, even Korydallos prison, with MAT units. At the same time, smaller units will guard targeted companies of European and American interests.

Then, there will be supervision in the broader central area, focusing around Propylaea (Panepistimiou, Akadimias, Patision, Stadiou, Amalias and Vasilissis Sofias). MAT squads will remove and apprehend at once people wearing hoods or carrying backpacks that might have stones or molotovs. In case of episodes, there will once again be an extensive use of chemicals…