Insulting or spitting on a police officer, breaking a police barrier, as the ultras sometimes do around a football stadium, or blocking a major avenue like Diagonal in Barcelona years ago, will go from being a serious offense to that of a minor.
Officers from the Police Intervention Units (UIP), known as riot police, tell EL ESPAÑOL that the fines will become “insignificant”. “They could even cost 50 euros if the author justifies low income. The reality is that any type of cutting can be carried out in the street without any criminal consequences,” they emphasize.
Indeed, when violations are detected, the offender’s income level will be taken into account: if he earns less than 1.5 times the Interprofessional Minimum Salary (SMI), he will benefit from a 50% reduction in the ‘fine.
Furthermore, “insults and insults” towards agents will only be punished when they are demonstrated in a reliable and “relevant” manner. In any case, if there is a sanction (from 100 to 600 euros), it will be null if the author retracts and apologizes.
This is common in demonstrations where acts of vandalism occur, where violent people disobey the instructions of officers or refuse to identify themselves. Article 36.6 of the current law on citizen security makes this a serious offense (punishable by a fine of 601 to 30,000 euros). These offenses will become minor, punishable by a fine of between 100 and 500 euros.
“Resistance to authority or its agents by physical opposition when it involves the refusal to comply with a legal order or to comply with the law or judicial order, when it does not constitute a criminal offense ” will also be punished as a minor offense.
The deal to reform the law has angered national police and civil guard groups, which have for years opposed attempts to undermine their authority and reduce their ability to act against criminals.
JUPOL, JUCIL, SUP, AUGC, CEP, AEGC, UFP and APROGC have spoken out in recent hours radically against the line that the Government intends to follow, and they agree on the diagnosis. “At the end of the day, it’s the citizens who will pay for this.”
Agents warn citizens that if this new regulation is approved, any damage caused to street furniture will be charged to their taxes. “The riots will be a little more uncontrollable. They surround Congress, Catalonia… These are situations which, without appropriate public order material, are uncontrollable. We give tools to criminals and they take them from us“, says a senior IPU member.
rubber balls
One of the key points of the agreement between the PSOE, Sumar and Bildu is “gradually” eliminate the use of rubber bullets by riot police.
For the IPU, it is another element of deterrence, a tool of mass police control, used in extreme situations of street violence. “The last time they were used significantly was when the violent wanted to enter the PSOE headquarters in Ferraz. “Without them, they would have succeeded.”.
“In a hand-to-hand confrontation, we will lose,” says a riot police officer with decades of service. “We are going to have more injured people and visually it is much more difficult to see the agents with sticks: they will say that it is repression and they will let the violent people take to the streets,” he concludes.
