A 25-year-old man reported to the Civil Guard an alleged assault by a national police officer during the Carnival of Arrecife. The complainant claims he received "two slaps in the face and a knee to the abdomen."
The Civil Guard has explained to La Voz that this complaint, which they say is classified "as a minor injury" and not as a crime, has already been sent to an Instruction Court of Arrecife. For their part, the National Police have indicated that they are aware of this complaint, but assure that they have no record of any agent having assaulted anyone.
For his part, the young man reported to the Civil Guard that on February 12 he was chatting with another person in Arrecife at 5:15 a.m., near the Parque Ramírez Cerdá. Given everything that was happening on this Carnival night, in which there were several fights, the complainant told his friend that "the nationals should listen more and hit less."
According to the complaint, at that moment "a national police officer lowered the window of a vehicle" and asked him what he was saying. The young man replied the same thing he had told his friend about the attitude of these agents. After this, according to the complaint, the police officer went towards him, "asking who the appearing party is to say what the National Police has to do."
The complainant stated that the agent addressed him with these words: "Shitty kid, who are you to tell us what we have to do or stop doing." He then requested his ID and made him go through "a control to access a kind of warehouse", where two agents accompanied him.
"I'm sending you to the ambulance"
Always according to the complaint, to which La Voz has had access, there they asked him to show his belongings and one of the agents reproached him for his attitude about the comment he had made about the National Police Corps and "gave him a slap". "Later, given the laughter that the police officer appreciates in the complainant, the police officer assaulted him again", according to the complaint before the Civil Guard, where the young man wanted to make it clear that the alleged "laughter" "was only an appreciation of the police officer".
After that, they returned his ID and his belongings, but before he left, according to the young man's account, the police officer told him: "If you go outside and say something, I'll put you back in and send you to the ambulance." The young man left the place without further incident and went home.
The next day he went to the Doctor José Molina Orosa Hospital because he was suffering from abdominal and cervical pain after this alleged assault. According to the medical report, he presented "bruising on the left side of the face, as well as injury to the mucosa of the left cheek" and "pain on palpation of the left side of the neck without limitation of mobility". In summary, he presented a facial contusion and post-traumatic cervicalgia.
228 euros for medical care
In addition, having requested an injury report to be able to present it to the Civil Guard, this young man received a letter from the Canarian Health Service. Attached to it is an invoice for an amount of 228.40 euros for emergency care and for radiology. This letter explains that it will be the judge who determines who is responsible for these reported events and, therefore, who must pay this invoice.
This letter explains that, according to the provisions of article 83 of the General Health Law, in this case the public administration "will have the right to claim the cost of the services provided." In this sense, article 116 of the Penal Code establishes that "any person criminally responsible for a crime or misdemeanor is also civilly liable if damages or losses arise from the act."
"If there are two or more people responsible for a crime or misdemeanor, the judges or courts will indicate the quota that each one must respond to. Therefore, the health expenses derived from such aggressions are borne by the one who is determined responsible for them", it is explained in this writing.
