Alexandros Grigoropoulos Research Paper

In 2008 15-year-old Alexandros Grigoropoulos was shot dead by two police officers in Athens, Greece. A little before 9:00 pm December 6th, Grigoropoulos and his friends were sitting in a corner in Exarcheia, a neighbourhood in downtown Athens, exchanging swear words with two police officers in a passing patrol car. The two policemen, Epaminondas Korkoneas and Vasilis Saraliotis, later returned to the scene on foot, where Korkoneas pulled out his gun and shot and killed Grigoropoulos who died minutes later in a friend’s lap. The two policemen then returned to the Exarcheia police station and reported that anarchists had attacked them; they did not, however, report the shooting. Korkoneas later, perhaps as an attempt to justify his actions, attack the character of Grigoropoulos, stating he was a deviant youth, expelled from school, a hooligan and associated with hoarders of youth gangs. These allegations were never proven and the Interior Minister later …show more content…
Furthermore, riots continued into Friday, December 12th where students attacked police outside the parliament building, while police responded with fired tear gas, and issued an appeal for more tear gas after supplies ran low as the result of more than 4,600 capsules of it being released against protesters. Heavy rain that evening, however, helped subside the angry crowd. However, it wasn’t the end. The protests inspired small protests in many European cities, spreading fears of copycat riots elsewhere. Riots continued into the 13th of December, where large groups of demonstrators gathered to protest in front of the Greek Parliament in central Athens. Despite this protest being relatively peaceful, the police reacted by using tear gas and violence. This resulted in the protesters returning to violence and later firebombing a police station near Exarcheia, the same area Grigoropoulos was