The owner of the Heineken Terrace in Playa Honda, located in the Deiland Shopping Center, denounces "excessive harassment" by agents of the Local Police of San Bartolomé, after the opening of a sanctioning file that he considers "unfair and abusive." A situation that, according to him, "is protected and consented to by the City Council, with its rigid and intolerant interventions in the interpretation of the law."
Specifically, the file initiated by the Department of Industry of Playa Honda is due to non-compliance with the closing time of the premises, but its owner, Juan Corchero, believes that it is "unfair and abusive."
The affected party, according to a letter he has presented to the Consistory, goes back to events that occurred in the early hours of December 4. That day, he says, the premises had closed "before their usual time", as the workers were preparing "to go to Arrecife to celebrate the company's Christmas party."
While they were carrying out the usual collection, cleaning, merchandise replacement and cash register tasks, "a Local Police car parked next to the terrace at 2:36 a.m., just six minutes after the closing time of the premises." "He went up to the terrace, although it is not allowed," he adds.
The owner, seeing that the premises "were completely cleaned up and without customers", thought that the agents had come to greet him "as other times" and went outside "with complete peace of mind." However, upon arriving at the car, he observed gestures "of great tension and aggressiveness" in the agents. "Juan, I'm tired of coming to tell you to close, that you can't have the bar open at these hours," the agent reproached him, according to him.
The affected party explained that it was completely closed, without understanding the attitude of the agents, who told him that there were people sitting on the terrace. "I didn't know they were there," says Juan Corchero, who then explained that, "in the rush to close earlier, he hadn't realized that there were people on the terrace" and apologized "several times."
"This time I'm not going to report you, but tomorrow I'm going to come and, if you continue in the same situation, I am going to report you," one of the agents replied, to which the owner asked them if they were "threatening" him. Finally, after a verbal confrontation between both parties, the agents left the place, but a file has been opened in the Consistory against the establishment for non-compliance with the closing time.
"An extreme follow-up"
The owner states that in recent years he has complied with the closing time "with incredible accuracy and rigidity", which has led them to earn "the respect and consideration of most local police officers." However, he assures that one of the agents has made, this last year, "an extreme, coercive and intimidating follow-up of the closing time of the premises."
"It is difficult enough to overcome day to day, as to add the confrontation between the individual and the municipal institution," says the owner of the premises, who believes that it is "a contradiction" that "without having complaints or denunciations from the neighbors, it is the local administration that harasses this businessman, against the deserved leisure service to the neighborhood, feeling persecuted and harassed."
From Aetur they have collected this complaint and, although they assure that "it is the first time that comments about police action regarding hospitality businesses have reached the association", they have asked the mayor of San Bartolomé, Marcial Martín, to investigate the facts "rigorously and impartially", and to "take the pertinent measures to correct this type of situation."
