Justice must stop authoritarianism, the oppression of the weak by the strong, the murderous fury of fascism and the devaluing of lives
Thursday September 21, 2023 says my house calendar. A little higher on the wall hangs a photo of Zacharias. He is smiling, his eyes are sparkling and through the glass of the photograph I feel a wave of calmness, kindness, compassion. It’s like he’s whispering to me, “Don’t be sad, don’t be bitter, Mom.”
But I remember, my mind fills with glasses and blood. Images flash before my eyes – running feet, closing doors, panic, agony, despair, kicks, punches, gasps, shoves, globbies, suffocation, death. How can I erase all this from my memory and heart? How to accept the result, the loss, the trauma?
For five years I have been fighting with the monster of awareness and memory and with the monsters that without a trace of humanity or guilt live and exist next to us and breathe the same air as us.
My child went missing that September afternoon. When I said goodbye and hugged him a month ago, I gave him a pair of sneakers. Later I saw the one shoe on the pavement of Gladstone, empty and trampled. Until now, I have not been at that point, I cannot bear to feel so much violence, inhumanity and hatred around me.
Five years have passed and none of those we saw in the videos murdering Jacques, each in their own way, are in prison. Crime in public view, Justice a la carte. The jeweler Dimopoulos is under house arrest because the law takes pity on elderly murderers. If you didn’t learn to love all people until your 70s, 80s, then you deserve a harsher punishment than this. The broker Hortarias, free until the appeals court, found a way to get out of prison after two months because when he is sentenced to 10 years in prison by the court that examined the case and its evidence, another court, which has not even read the judgments, may seem more lenient. The four police officers involved were found not guilty because we all saw how much respect and concern they showed for Jacques’ life and how organized and professional they dealt with a victim of a beating in a critical health and life situation.
The civilization and superiority of a society is seen in the way it protects and helps the weak person, the poor, the disabled, the woman, the child, the immigrant, the elderly, the sick and others. In Greece we saw the poor lose their home, the disabled thrown into the sea, the woman murdered by her husband or partner, the child raped, the immigrant sinking with the boat, the transgender person stabbed.
Jacques was murdered for his multiple identities, for his anti-fascist action, for his courage and stubbornness to change the world. Justice must stop authoritarianism and the oppression of the weak by the strong, the murderous fury of fascism and the devaluing of human lives.
The mass media play an important role in shaping opinion and ultimately belief about the personality of the victim and the actions of the perpetrators. We see and hear journalists, commentators and politicians blaming the victims with phrases like “what did he want there?”, “he was illegal”, “he was treated well”. Inadmissible, inhumane, immoral words. Victims need neither commentary nor televised trials, only truth, punishment of their perpetrators and memory.
It is true that no one who has been murdered has been resurrected, but it is the duty of every conscientious, democratic, authentic person to react to all kinds of cruelty, abuse and fascist behavior, because future crimes and actions of future murderers will be judged by this.
Therefore, the healthy part of Greek society will continue to protest, claim and fight against any discrimination, encroachment, depreciation and deprivation of human rights.
