According to the mother of a 15-year-old boy, her minor son experienced violence in Thessaloniki on 06-04-2023 at the hands of an off-duty policeman, resulting in him being hospitalised at Papageorgiou Hospital with bruises and injuries. She also claimed that the child suffered racist comments.
Police representatives claimed that there was no physical contact between the police officer and the child, and that the injuries were sustained in a fall.
In a state governed by the rule of law, the police authorities must be governed by certain principles, including the principle of legality, the principle of proportionality, the prohibition of the abuse of police power and the respect for and protection of human rights.
The powers of the police authorities and the conduct to be displayed by them in the performance of their duties are regulated, inter alia, by Presidential Decrees 538/1989, 141/1991 and 254/2004.
Although the police may use force to enforce the law, this does not mean that all use of preventive or repressive force by the police is lawful. On the contrary, the arbitrary use of the power to use force and police action in excess of the legal limits is a dangerous phenomenon for a democracy.
The complaints made by the mother of a 15-year-old boy in Thessaloniki regarding the verbal and physical violence he suffered from an off-duty police officer, seem to describe behaviour that does not comply with the requirements and obligations set by the legal order for the action of police officers on or off duty.
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