Spain's government wants people to be "scared of the system"

[Fraxxx]

""Our judicial system is not frightening enough ", said Felip Puig, the Catalan interior chief, a few days after the March 29 general strike. In the wake of that protest, the Spanish government has unveiled a series of changes to the Criminal Code that it hopes will be approved by June and which would criminalise the actions of movements such as 15-M  (or indignados), despite their peaceful nature.

Last week, Interior Minister Jorge Fernández gave more details: peaceful resistance will be deemed a form of illegal undermining of authority, punishable with one to three years in jail; the punishment for civil disobedience, which is currently six months to one year in jail, will be increased to two to three years.

There is another change to the Criminal Code that can further hurt the 15-M movement, which relies on social networks as one of its main channels of communication: the convoking, via internet, of actions that involve violence would be now a crime, punishable with two to five years in jail. This would be deemed forming part of a criminal organization, equating cyber activists with members of drug or other criminal gangs, even if they were not involved in the violence that took place in the protest.

The minister also announced the bolstering of the punishment for disorderly conduct, which is now six months to three years in jail. With the reform of the Criminal Code it will mean a minimum of two years in jail (the same as for kale borroka, politically motivated street vandalism in the Basque region). This objective is clear: to clamp down on Spain's "antisistema" element (ie: anti-system activists), as has already been done in Catalonia, where, since March 29, three young strikers have been on preventive remand.

15-M activists have condemned these planned changes to the Criminal Code. The government's move implies "the repression of any kind of protest action", said one activist. "The government does not react to peaceful social movements by listening but by repressing and setting the foundations of a pseudo-fascist state," says Democracia Real Ya on its Facebook page.

Others outside the 15-M movement have also voiced concern, including members of the justice system. Valencia's spokesman for Jueces para la Democracia, an association representing more than 500 Spanish judges, warned that the government's reforms seek to "criminalize demonstrations that are mostly peaceful."

The repression of the 15-M movement has been particularly harsh in Catalonia, where 20 people are facing three to five years in jail and more than 200 have been handed fines totalling over €40,000 for protest activity. Since May 15, 2011, more than 200 activists have been arrested around Spain, half of them in Barcelona. Mostly, they are charged with civil disobedience, resisting arrest, disorderly conduct and similar offences. The Legal Committee of Sol, which gives legal support to the 15-M movement, reported that in February nine young people were interrogated by hooded police after being arrested during a protest against the labour law reform, receiving treatment similar to that meted out to suspected terrorists.

Next month, 15-M will call for new actions, coinciding with the anniversary of the movement's emergence. The initiative has been prepared for several months, in Spain and other countries. Meanwhile, the police are carefully monitoring these preparations ahead of the actions themselves. But they have got their work cut out: Democracia Real Ya, just one of the groups associated with the movement, has nearly half a million followers on Facebook and more than 135,000 on Twitter."

http://iberosphere.com/2012/04/spain-news-protest/5949


Wonderful, isn't it? Of course they always try to discredit the mostly peaceful protests by using agent provocateurs. There are even videos on Youtube in which they have to be escorted out of demonstrations by police in riot gear after being identified.

[Darkwing Duck (The Reincarnation)]

why not?
i like the idea

[Furor Teutonicus]

Wow, this government don't even deserve peaceful protestors. They deserve a mob that forces them into exile.

[Matty]

lynchings in the street?

waiting on the first euro nation to have a violent revolution atm, not that that's the best solution, but i think that's where things may be heading when 'democracy' flat out fails. would do some good to the political/banker/central banker types running amock and screwing up everyone's futures, if they were held accountable with their lives. i think if the army and/or police were to revolt against the leaders in a country you'd have bloodshed and probably some type of intervention from the keepers of 'peace' in the free world/EMPIRE.

[V2DHeart]

Not surprised really. The gurdia Civil used to club people for good measure years ago, even holiday makers like me. They didn't tolerate nothing back then. They're a LOT better now, but I think it has to do with them depending on the UK/German tourist trade and being apart of the EU

[Hood Crawler]

I have always thought that harsher punishment for crimes would result in less crime.  Jail alone is not a deference to criminals.

[Matty]

I have always thought that harsher punishment for crimes would result in less crime.  Jail alone is not a deference to criminals.

problem now is the real criminals have pretty good control of the legal system. more money, more influence, more access to rewrite laws. somewhat of a conspiracy. but lower level crime, i think harsher deterrents are a decent idea...seems to work in some countries. but keeping people in prisons is very profitable too, so again its not that simple. the 'prison industrial complex' ir huge in the US :0

[V2DHeart]

Agree on that, and I always want harsher punishments, grubbier jails, angrier and less patient guards and so on.

On the other hand, there are some prisons we have here in Scotland that employ hundreds. Then you have the health-care within them which can sometimes be better than the health-care you'd get from the NHS. Better waiting times etc, and to rush to make you better to get you back inside. The speakers, the educational lecturers that provide classes, quality inspectors, local involvement and training opportunities for the local communities around the prisons, plus loads more. They offer a lot of jobs and opportunities for people running on the bureaucratic system it works as at the moment.

I guess if they were to work harsher and like 3rd world prisons, we wouldn't have half the people working in them, which wouldn't be good during these economic times

[Darkwing Duck (The Reincarnation)]

i had an egg-cream for the first time in my life today. i liked it