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Nearly 300 police injured in Catalan protests: Madrid

Nearly 300 police were injured in the violent protests which erupted across Catalonia following the jailing of nine Catalan separatist leaders earlier this month, the Spanish government said Friday.

Published: 26 October 2019 11:14 CEST

Nearly 300 police injured in Catalan protests: Madrid

Photo: AFP

A total of 289 police officers were injured in the clashes, including 154from Catalonia's regional police force, the Mossos d'Esquadra, government spokeswoman Isabel Celaa told a news conference following a weekly cabinet meeting.

Catalonia's regional emergency services had previously said they had treated 593 people injured in the protests between October 14th and 20th, including 226 police officers.

The latest toll for the number of injured police is higher because some officers were treated in private clinics, a spokesman for the interior ministry said.

A powerful grassroots separatist organisation, ANC, said Wednesday that according to Catalonia's regional health department, 579 people were injured by “police violence” in the protests.

Celaa said over 200 people were arrested during the protests. Of these, 134 adults and 15 minors have appeared before a judge and 31 were sent to jail. Of the 15 minors, 14 were released on probation and one was placed in a juvenile detention centre.

The streets of Barcelona and other Catalan cities were rocked by demonstrations for several days after Spain's Supreme Court on October 14th sentenced the nine leaders, mostly former members of the Catalan regional government, to prison terms of up to 13 years for sedition over a failed 2017 independence bid.

Demonstrators set fire to cars and garbage bins and threw rocks, Molotov cocktails and steel balls at police, who responded with batons and rubber bullets.

READ ALSO: Crisis in Catalonia: Barcelona braced for new wave of protests

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Calls for special police tactics to be available across Sweden

SPT, (Särskild polistaktik), is a tactic where the police work with communication rather than physical measures to reduce the risk of conflicts during events like demonstrations.

Tactics include knowledge about how social movements function and how crowds act, as well as understanding how individuals and groups act in a given situation. Police may attempt to engage in collaboration and trust building, which they are specially trained to do.

Katharina von Sydow, chairwoman of the Police Association West Region, told Swedish Radio P4 West that the concept should exist throughout the country.

“We have nothing to defend ourselves within 10 to 15 metres. We need tools to stop this type of violent riot without doing too much damage,” she said.

SPT is used in the West region, the South region and in Stockholm, which doesn’t cover all the places where the Easter weekend riots took place.

In the wake of the riots, police unions and the police’s chief safety representative had a meeting with the National Police Chief, Anders Tornberg, and demanded an evaluation of the police’s work. Katharina von Sydow now hopes that the tactics will be introduced everywhere.

“This concept must exist throughout the country”, she said.

During the Easter weekend around 200 people were involved in riots after a planned demonstration by anti-Muslim Danish politician Rasmus Paludan and his party Stram Kurs (Hard Line), that included the burning of the Muslim holy book, the Koran.

Police revealed on Friday that at least 104 officers were injured in counter-demonstrations that they say were hijacked by criminal gangs intent on targeting the police.

Forty people were arrested and police are continuing to investigate the violent riots for which they admitted they were unprepared.

Paludan’s application for another demonstration this weekend was rejected by police.

In Norway on Saturday, police used tear gas against several people during a Koran-burning demonstration after hundreds of counter-demonstrators clashed with police in the town of Sandefjord.

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