Barcelona: Spanish police beating pacific civilians who are just defending their civil and politic rights.
On October 1, 2017, Spanish police (Policía Nacional) and military police (Guardia Civil) beat brutally Catalan people who were just trying to vote pacifically in a referendum that asked them if Catalonia must or must not belong to Spain. Spanish government didn’t regard the referendum as legal, and tried to ban it. The Catalan government decided to carry it out anyway, and at least half of the population (more than two million out of five million adults) went to vote in spite of the threats of the right-wing Spanish government. It was a terrible violation of Human Rights.
Shamefully, the brutal police attacks ordered by the Spanish right-wing leading party (called PP, Partido Popular) were endorsed by the main party in the opposition, the so-called socialists (PSOE, Partido Socialista Obrero Español), which is like the conservative Democratic Party in the US, and a third one, the right-wing Ciudadanos. The real Spanish left-wing alliance, Unidos-Podemos, has condemned the police violent actions, like the majority of Catalan political parties.
Among brutalized people were elders, and all of the attacked civilians were disarmed. More than 800 wounded civilians have been treated. Although the Spanish interior minister says some 400 policemen were injured, there’s no single evidence of that (is it possible that tendinitis caused by hitting human beings qualifies as injury?). The Spanish government sent 17.000 policemen to Catalonia, who were enclosed in strange ships for some days before the referendum.
Many media all over Europe are informing on the facts. Not the Spanish right-wing media, which are publishing lies about a fake violence of the people. Below you can see some videos on the facts of 1 October, as well as some tweets by two well-known writers in English language, as well as one by the singer Bjork.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GI49YSCruwY
Political statements from members of the Spanish Popular Party.
Translation:
- Spanish vice president: The absolute irresponsibility of the Catalan government has been made up by the professionalism of the security and police forces. They have abide by the judges’ orders, have acted with professionalism, in a balanced and proportionated way. The target of their actions were never people, but electoral material. They aimed to protect rights and freedoms.
- Spanish government delegate in Catalonia: Officers are acting with the mesure and proportion suited to each case. What is happening today in Catalonia is by no means a referendum nor anything which resembles it. Security forces are acting with method, in an exemplary way, proportionally to the situations they face, and keeping the aim which is the electoral material, not people.
Demonstration in Madrid in solidarity with the Catalan people and against Spanish police violence.