The Spanish Ministry of the Interior opened an investigation this Monday to investigate the alleged violence used during the detention of two unarmed black men, following complaints lodged by anti-racist organizations and appeals from left-wing parties, namely Podemos, Sumar and Más Madrid, who demanded more explanations about what happened.
“So until when? What is the justification for this violent action, the harassment and police violence in Lavapiés have no name” wrote Serigne Mbayé, social activist and former deputy of Unidas Podemos in the Madrid Assembly, on his X social network account. “I hope that the Ministry of the Interior, the National Police and the Ombudsman take action before it is too late”he added.
The images in the video, which lasts just over a minute, only show part of the intervention in which it is possible to see one of the men lying on the ground and already immobilized by a police officer, while a second officer then appears to hit him with a baton. , before immobilizing and grabbing another migrant who was nearby.
According to police sources, cited by the Spanish press, a patrol went early on Friday morning to Lavapiés square after receiving a call from a supermarket on Calle de Valencia, in the Madrid neighborhood of Lavapiés, due to a feud between four individuals abroad, allegedly over drugs.
According to the same sources, when the agents arrived at the scene, they managed to separate the four individuals, but while two of them collaborated with the police, two others maintained a hostile and violent attitude towards the police agents.
After police intervention, the two were arrested for attacking authorities, disobedience and one of them was accused of drug trafficking, for being in possession of narcotic substances. Ultimately, one of the officers was injured and a police car was damaged.
“Don’t normalize this situation”
The video, shared by activist Serigne Mbay on social media, took little time to go viral and provoke reactions across the country, including in the political sphere. “This police violence is unacceptable”, wrote the spokesperson for the Podemos party, Isabel Serra, on the social network X. Accusing that “the complicity of institutions” to be “too common” and to be about “racism”.
Más Madrid’s spokesperson, Manuela Bergerot, also reacted on the same network, noting that “This is unacceptable. The Ministry of the Interior must take action”.
The spokesman for the left-wing Sumar alliance, Iñigo Errejón, asked the Ministry of the Interior to clarify whether it had opened an investigation and questioned what measures would be taken “in view of citizens’ complaints about the existence of police violence”, in a document submitted to Parliament. According to Iñigo Errejón, “it is possible to perceive (in the images) a cruelty that does not seem to respond to a contained protocol of police action”.
Following the outrage caused across the country, hundreds of people gathered in Lavapiés square, on Sunday, to demonstrate against police violence and institutional racism.
“This is a situation we live in every day”denounced Serigne Mbayé, calling on the Spanish government to do more in the fight against racism and strengthening transparency in the police. “We are telling the government to take action, this cannot continue”he stated.
Tags: Police intervention generates outrage Spain leads opening investigation
