Licences to murder Covid-Cops were the angry inspiration of cheering Albanians who torched Christmas tree amid fiery protests in the capital over the police killing of a Covid curfew-breaker.

It is assumed that the garlanded tree and other Christmas decorations were thought woefully inappropriate in a police state policed by trigger-happy state police.

A crowd of protesters cheered the destruction of a huge Christmas tree in the Albanian capital Tirana amid fierce demonstrations over the death of a 25-year-old man, shot dead by police for allegedly breaching the Covid curfew.

Footage posted online showed demonstrators setting the Christmas alight before pushing it over, while local media reported that some people hurled projectiles at police as crowds gathered outside the interior ministry and the prime minister’s offices.

Protesters demanded the resignation of Interior Minister Sander Lleshaj, who said that police were investigating the circumstances surrounding Klodian Rasha’s killing by officers on Tuesday.  

Initially, police said Rasha had failed to stop when ordered and was carrying a weapon. However, the cops later admitted he was not armed or threatening. The officer involved in the shooting has been arrested, and an inquiry is underway.

Two police officers, a protestor and a journalist have reportedly been injured in the protest clashes, and law enforcement deployed tear gas on Wednesday in an effort to break up the crowds gathered in defiance of the state’s Covid measures. 

Albania’s current Covid-19 restrictions include limits of 10 people gathering at once, the mandatory use of facemasks and curfews. 

Dissident journalist Michael Walsh: ‘When the people are routinely watched by police as in a prison archipelago, when anti-regime protestors and journalists are gaoled whilst criminals roam free. When salaries are plundered through fines, when folk distrust and fear the police, then the police are the criminal class.’ Source

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