Violent Crimes Suddenly Come To Greece
http://hebronics.org/index.html
How many muggings, murders, etc., have you read from Greece? Very few I venture. I have read where it has one of, if not the, lowest violent crime rates in the European area. An American named Tom Mazarakis, moved to Athens Greece thirty years ago where he now operates a carpet business and he also has a website which has an enormous amont of information about the area, valuable to any tourists who might be considering a visit there. Even though he acknowledges a normal expectation of non-violent crimes, here is an interesting blurb from his "crime" page. Luckily, violent crime is almost non-existent here in Greece. I have yet to hear of anyone ever getting mugged here in Athens. This is a type of crime that the people of Athens will not accept. Criminals know that should they dare to attack someone on the street with the intent to rob them, onlookers would not only rush to the victim's aid, but, would also willingly testify in court against the perpetrator. This inhibits the criminal element considerably. Crimes of armed robbery like that which was experienced by tourists visiting Miami are also unheard of here in Greece. Acts of violence against tourists are considered to be completely unacceptable by all Greeks. Local Greeks often fall victim to acts of violence at the hands of certain tourists who on occasion consume too much "ouzo" and lose control. These, though, are rare incidents but they do happen from time to time. Generally speaking Greece is an extremely safe place to visit for tourists. I consistently get reports from simple tourists who visit my carpet store about how they feel very safe in Athens. They can sense an aura of peaceful existence here and they often comment how they wish they could feel the same in their own cities. Many people have told me how they even felt safe walking down dark and deserted streets in Athens late at night. Whereas they wouldn't dream of doing the same in their own countries. Try and compare those remarks to what can be said of our larger cities. I suspect there are multiple muggings in our largest cities on a daily basis. An I know the second paragraph shows drastic contrasts to that of ours. Within the short period of this year, about 3 and ½ months, we have had numerous violent shooting sprees, plus suicide, events 4 of which have been in the past two weeks! According to one article I found, there have been 58 deaths in those type rampages, this year! This type of suicide killing sprees is multiplying far too fast. But, as our subject title reads, Greece is also beginning to experience such and it is very disturbing that so much has risen so quickly. A 19 year old student of the Western Athens State College opened fire in the vocational school, wounding three people before shooting himself in the head. He left a note saying that his fellow students were "picking on him" and that "he couldn't take it any longer". Police reported that he had two hand guns and a knife. The really bewildering part of this is that there have been a rash of other violent crimes in recent days in Athens. Read this information taken from and Associated Press article entitled: "Student Shoots 3 in Greek College, Kills Himself". The shooting comes amid a recent surge of bloody bank robberies, homicides, muggings and violent burglaries in Greece. The country has no history of violent crime, and the incidents have embarrassed Greece's conservative government, which has been shaken by a series of financial scandals and holds a slim one-seat majority in parliament. Last week, unknown gunmen shot and injured two policemen who stopped them for a routine check Athens, while recently a gunman fired shots in an Athens hospital during a bank robbery. The country has also been embroiled in political violence as well. Far-left groups have engaged in arson on anything showing governmental authority, banks and foreign diplomats automobiles. Some are saying these things flared up after police shot and killed a teenager in December last. The shooting caused more riots than the country had seen in many years.
Webgazine Columnist.
Article submitted Friday, April 10, 2009 & read 107 times.
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