Greece gangs
Forum rules
Discuss anything about Western European street gangs and organized crime.
Discuss anything about Western European street gangs and organized crime.
Re: Greece gangs
yea man, there are crews in Hellas. But from what Ive seen they aint the traditional LA stlyee gangz. They more organised crime like gangs.
Re: Greece gangs
yea man, there are crews in Hellas. But from what Ive seen they aint the traditional LA stlyee gangz. They more organised crime like gangs.
Re: Greece gangs
As far as I know, we do not have gangs of the American type or structure in Greece, at least not yet. What we do have is organised/semi-organised crime groups based mostly on ethnic groups. Apart from Greek organised crime circles we have the so called Albanian Mafia, the influence of which has been probably overestimated by the media for obvious reasons. In a country of about ten million there are almost 1 million Albanian immigrants, legal or otherwise, so it is expected they would be treated as scapegoats and blamed for the rise of crime over these last few years. Deep down people are racists everywhere. Other than that quite a few Rumanians are active in the underworld as are a few Russians.
On a street level the closest thing to an L.A. type gang are probably the Gypsies -as strange as it may sound- and the Greek/Russians. The Gypsies have always been a society apart in Greece and although they are 100% Greek citizens they neither enjoy the benefits that most other people do nor do they blend in with the rest of the urban population. They are for the most part easily identified as Gypsies just from the way they look and they often live under squalid conditions, in tents and makeshift homes. And I'm talking about the inner city here! People know not to mess with them, they are notorious for beeing able to appear in great numbers out of nowhere and there are supposedly certain Gypsy "encampments" were even police patrols are afraid to go.
The Greek/Russians are people of greek origin who lived in the former Soviet Union and have now returned to the homeland. They also tend to stick to themselves and to congregate on the streets, sometimes forming what you could call juvenile gangs. Most Greeks haven't taken a particular liking to them since they can sometimes be pretty obnoxious. But who's to blame them for being obnoxious after several "accidental" killings of Greek/Russian kids by cops have gone unpunished?
Anyway, the streets in Athens are nothing like in L.A. You can pretty much go anywhere anytime without feeling threatened. I have some distant relatives in L.A. who came over last summer and they just couldn't believe that everyone was still out and about all over the city even late at night. I hope things stay that way for a long time to come.
On a street level the closest thing to an L.A. type gang are probably the Gypsies -as strange as it may sound- and the Greek/Russians. The Gypsies have always been a society apart in Greece and although they are 100% Greek citizens they neither enjoy the benefits that most other people do nor do they blend in with the rest of the urban population. They are for the most part easily identified as Gypsies just from the way they look and they often live under squalid conditions, in tents and makeshift homes. And I'm talking about the inner city here! People know not to mess with them, they are notorious for beeing able to appear in great numbers out of nowhere and there are supposedly certain Gypsy "encampments" were even police patrols are afraid to go.
The Greek/Russians are people of greek origin who lived in the former Soviet Union and have now returned to the homeland. They also tend to stick to themselves and to congregate on the streets, sometimes forming what you could call juvenile gangs. Most Greeks haven't taken a particular liking to them since they can sometimes be pretty obnoxious. But who's to blame them for being obnoxious after several "accidental" killings of Greek/Russian kids by cops have gone unpunished?
Anyway, the streets in Athens are nothing like in L.A. You can pretty much go anywhere anytime without feeling threatened. I have some distant relatives in L.A. who came over last summer and they just couldn't believe that everyone was still out and about all over the city even late at night. I hope things stay that way for a long time to come.