Espacio Sáhara Lanzarote has shown "its incredulity, enormous regret and rejection" at "the excessive antidemocratic, out of line and ultra-reactionary messages" issued by the Unified Police Union (SUP) through a statement, in which it invited the Saharawi activist José Morales to leave the country and in which it assured that this citizen, of Uruguayan origin, is a regular in all kinds of "protests and commotions".
Espacio Sáhara Lanzarote has come to the defense of Morales, who is facing an expulsion file for an altercation with a national police officer in a pro-Saharawi demonstration. In this sense, the group has recalled that it was the activist who denounced the agent "for pointing his weapon at different demonstrators" and has denounced that the police union went so far as to affirm that Morales is "a person well known by the Arrecife Police".
Espacio Sáhara Lanzarote has appealed to the "constitutional right of demonstration that those who drafted this crazy statement in the name of the police union seem to ignore". Thus, they have recalled that "there were other times when being a regular at all kinds of demonstrations and rallies was a reason for police persecution". The group has indicated that using that fact as "punishable" against José Morales "demonstrates a lack of democratic values that causes unease, knowing that it emanates from an organization of which agents of the authority are part".
"We show our incredulity and unease in knowing that it is members of the police, integrated in the main police union of the Spanish State, who wield these antidemocratic reasons to justify ongoing judicial and administrative actions, in which, moreover, if they had a minimum respect for legality, they should intervene as little as possible, since they are in turn an involved and executing party", the platform has pointed out.
In this sense, the platform has considered that the police union "has betrayed a strategy against a citizen, in which the illegality that he may or may not have committed does not prevail, but other arguments that are outside the law and whose interpretation belongs to an antidemocratic and outdated system of values". "This type of message goes against the equanimity required of the police forces and against a democratic model in which civil and citizen rights are respected", he stated.
Disassociate from the statements of the police union
This platform has demanded that the Superior Headquarters of the National Police, as well as the delegation of the central Government in the Canary Islands and the insular directorate of the General State Administration, "clarify if their actions are following the parameters" expressed by the Unified Police Union and, if not, has asked that it "disassociate itself from these statements that show arbitrariness and distill contempt for civic and democratic rights".
In addition, this group has demanded a rectification from the police union itself and has asked it to "distance itself" from these manifestations, which "portray it as an ultra and xenophobic group". "Otherwise, we appeal to the responsibility of the Police Headquarters, Government Delegation and insular directorate to prevent these messages that disturb coexistence from being directly linked to agents whose function should be to guarantee it", he stated.
But their request does not end here. Given the "seriousness" of what was expressed by the Unified Police Union, Espacio Sáhara has requested that it be investigated if this type of message, "which comes from police representatives, does not incur in administrative and even criminal offenses".
"No police union has exclusivity or a patent to arrogate the right to consider who should or should not live among the citizens of this island. Moreover, those who consider the right to assembly, demonstration or freedom of expression to be a crime are outside our system of coexistence, but not because of their national origin, but because of their lack of fit in the democratic values that must be practiced. Therefore, we reject a xenophobic message against a citizen who is fully integrated into Lanzarote society for almost a decade, contrary to what was expressed by this union, and whom the SUP considers should be arbitrarily expelled", indicated Espacio Sáhara Lanzarote, which has taken advantage of this statement to make a call in favor of peaceful coexistence between "people of different origins".
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