Barcelona, usually a laid-back Mediterranean metropolis, has recently come to resemble a warzone. Since the Supreme Court of Spain sentenced nine Catalan independence leaders to between nine and 13 years behind bars, protests have raged in the Catalan capital and beyond.
One would have thought the Spanish state would have wanted a bit of positive PR after its missteps two years ago. The world was shocked when voters, including the elderly, were beaten with batons and dragged away from polling stations by overzealous policemen sent in to quash the independence referendum. The Spanish state rightly received widespread condemnation for its heavy-handedness. However, two years later, it does not seem to have learned anything from this.
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Since the latest wave of protests erupted, Amnesty International has condemned the Spanish police’s use of excessive force and its deployment of anti-riot equipment and munitions. Officers have used batons on peaceful and subdued protesters. Four protesters have so far lost eyes from rubber bullets fired at close range. One protester required surgery after receiving a shot to the testicles. Officially, these bullets are banned in the region.
Amnesty has also condemned the police’s use of the ‘carousel’: the practice of driving vans at full speed towards crowds of protesters to disperse them. The police have also used tear gas and water cannon on demonstrators. The crackdown has not been limited to Barcelona, either. Twenty-six people were injured at a solidarity protest in Madrid last week. In total, close to 600 protesters have been injured during the latest wave of demonstrations. Some 200 have been arrested.
Journalists have also been hassled by police during the protests. A photojournalist from El País was manhandled and detained after attempting to photograph a protester being arrested. Other journalists have reportedly been roughed up by police, including one from Catalunya Ràdio and two teams from public-service TV network TVE.
