A strong letter from a Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police) agent to the Civil Guard and Spanish National Police warning them that "if you come thinking that it's Beirut, that we're governed by some radical independence supporters, that those protesting are an anti-system minority that want to break up Spain, I'm sorry, but you're wrong".
The letter, signed by an anonymous officer of the Public Security Unit, was published in Segre, a Catalan newspaper. It asks the Spanish police that "while you're sitting in the van, get out of your state of readiness, relax and look out of the window" warning that, if they don't follow this advice, "when you open the van's door, the shock of the reality will be brutal".
After taking down all the arguments the Spanish press tries (and often manages) to get to percolate into the collective consciousness, the officer, who says he spent part of his career in the anti-riot unit, says that "once you're activated, you put on your uniform, you holster your pistol, take your rucksack and get into the van, I know that your adrenaline level will rise because you're expecting the worst" and, for that, reminds them that "you don't know what you'll find and you have to be ready for everything".
Avui, on tothom parla de precintar: carta d'un mosso a guàrdies i policies al diari Segre #Democracia pic.twitter.com/IgnNfrWPXi
— Farners Casas (@farnersc) 27 de setembre de 2017
Open your eyes
The letter then starts to describe what could happen on 1st October. "That day, thousands and thousands of people will take to the streets, whether they are elderly, young, teenagers, children or adults like me", he says, suggesting that "you'll surely think that these people could be your grandmother, father, mother, brother, son or a citizen of your town or city, because you'll see normal people, all of them excited to express their feelings and to be able to vote for a real democracy".
And it will be like this because, in his opinion, "the conflict we find ourselves in should have been solved politically many years ago, but in the time we find ourselves in, you have to know that you're the mechanism that the state of the [Spanish] government has sent to Catalonia to continue with its current policy".
In conclusion, the officer asks them to "open their eyes" and to "thoroughly analyse the situation around you, as it depends on the actions you decide to take, surely at some point in your life you'll regret it".