Two police officers visited CIVIL yesterday at 12:40 pm. Two uniformed policemen entered the courtyard which is privately owned, and in which three members of the coordination team of the organization were sitting, with the words “you are suspicious,” as if joking. Even though being uniformed, they said they were not in an official visit. Their excuse for the visit was that homeless people used to come there earlier, and then, without any invitation settled themselves comfortably on the chairs and began questioning. They were interested in how CIVIL makes its “earnings”, where it finds its money for survival, asking about who lives where, about the ethnic and religious affiliation, and concluding that the people of CIVIL are the ones who are protesting.
We would not like to consider the questions that were raised during yesterday’s “informative talk”, which was performed by the police during their visit to CIVIL, as a form of pressure and we hope that, nevertheless, it was just an isolated and random visit. However, we do feel the need of informing the public about this close encounter, given the general situation.
Regarding the questions on how we make our “earnings”, we informed the police that all the information on the projects and finances are found on the CIVIL website, the social networks and other online channels of the organization. Moreover, we present detailed information on all activities of the organization to the public through numerous public events and press conferences held in public places, to which the police is more than welcome.
Furthermore, we remind the police that CIVIL is an organization which for the past 15 years of existence, among other things, has been providing major contribution in raising public awareness of the dangers of illegal weapons to the safety and security, in enhancing the cooperation between the police and the citizens and in overcoming the cult towards guns.
