Reform of the gag law. Cartoon of 04/12/2021 in CTXT
The Interior Ministry of the most progressive government in world history has spent some two million euros on 25,539 extendable steel batons. The Mossos (Catalan autonomic police force) have them since 2016 and the Guardia Civil since 2018. In the National Police they have been asking for them for some time to reinforce their equipment of public order thugs, more and more militarised every day.
According to reports in El Salto, this type of defence, made of metal as opposed to the normal truncheon, was used by a local police officer in Roquetas de Mar (Almería) when he killed Juan Martínez in what is known as the "Roquetas case ".
In 2005, the Basque Country banned their use by the Ertzaintza, allowing only trained plainclothes police to use them. In 2019, after the mobilisations for the Procés ruling, the Interior spent a million euros on expandable batons to guarantee "the protection of those who carry them", as the National Police Weapons Service justified at the time.
Although it is assumed that there will be a protocol for its use, as there is for the traditional ones, when it comes to handing out "citizen security"to the population, we already know what will happen. More than one will get a steel stick in any part of their body because of the excitement of the agents in the action situations they enjoy so much.
And beware that these truncheons, widely used by those endearing fascists of yesterday, today and forever, do not leave a simple souvenir mark, nor are they padded. The extendable ones they can break anything.