Two Esquerra Republicana deputies in the Catalan Parliament have reported a Spanish National Police agent for having spat at and insulted them in front of the police headquarters on Barcelona's Via Laietana, of such dark memory in the recent past. The agent was in uniform and carrying a long-barrelled weapon. This summary isn't a science-fiction tale, nor the synopsis of a novel which, doubtlessly, would triumph in bookshops.
It's a real event from 23rd July, when MPs Josep Maria Jové and Jenn Díaz were heading to the Palau de la Música to attend the awards ceremony for the Creus de Sant Jordi1. Two further notes: some months ago, the latter had already reported that persons unknown had smashed her car in her town, Sant Andreu de la Barca. The other note, it's been three weeks since the attack on photojournalist Jordi Borràs, also by a National Police agent, a member of the Information Brigade, who, among other delights, smashed his nose to a shout of "Viva Franco". It does not appear he has been removed from duty.
It's already some months that this platform has been denouncing the impunity with which people are acting against the independence movement. The gratuitous violence in the streets, sometimes against anonymous citizens, but others against perfectly recognisable people like the two deputies and Borràs. Or the case of the attack at Catalunya Ràdio. In the end, there exists the impression that these actions end up with an archived file and little more. Meanwhile, two deputies are reporting that they were scared walking in front of police headquarters! That's extraordinarily serious.
Eradicating fascism from the streets of Catalonia is a priority and a democratic duty of the public powers. It's so for the Catalan government and especially for the Mossos d'Esquadra, the Catalan police. But it's also so for the Spanish government delegation to Catalonia when those implicated are police agents who believe that the current impunity is a free pass for intolerable attitudes which have to be denounced and pursued without equivocation.
Translator's note: 1. The Creu de Sant Jordi ("St George Cross") is the second-highest civil decoration awarded by the Catalan government.