Totally disproportionate

José Morales is undoubtedly right about something. What happened as a result of the altercation that took place at the pro-Sahrawi rally held last Friday in Arrecife is "disproportionate". It is disproportionate that he is...

July 29 2011 (14:37 WEST)

José Morales is undoubtedly right about something. What happened as a result of the altercation that took place at the pro-Sahrawi rally held last Friday in Arrecife is "disproportionate". It is disproportionate that he is...

José Morales is undoubtedly right about something. What happened as a result of the altercation that took place at the pro-Sahrawi rally held last Friday in Arrecife is "disproportionate". It is disproportionate that expulsion proceedings are opened against him, when it has not even been judged yet whether he committed the crimes he is accused of. And the speed and forcefulness of the police and government action in this case is disproportionate.

In fact, despite inquiries made by La Voz de Lanzarote, neither the Government Delegation in the Canary Islands nor the Ministry of the Interior have been able to cite a single precedent to date in which an immigrant with legal papers has been expelled from the country. The law contemplates the possibility of expulsion, but it is being applied to foreigners who are illegally in Spain and who have "numerous criminal and/or judicial records linked to terrorism, organised gangs, gender violence or any other particularly serious criminal act that poses a threat to public safety". That said, framing this case in the case of José Morales, no matter how many detractors he may have, sounds "disproportionate".

However, it is also disproportionate for a group of demonstrators, who did not even have permission to hold that rally, to surround an officer who was doing his job in plain clothes, shouting at him. Because even if it were true that they mistook the officer for a kind of "Moroccan spy", the truth is that after he took out his gun and they knew his identity, they continued to surround and berate him, as confirmed by the photographs and witnesses. There, they lost their reason, because if there had been an alleged abuse by an officer, that is not the way to resolve it.

Furthermore, it is also disproportionate to try to sell this altercation as a kind of repression of the Saharawi people or a persecution of a "troublesome" person. And it is one thing to debate whether a particular officer may have exceeded his functions, or have acted incorrectly, reprehensibly or even sanctionably, and another to sell this as an alleged state and international conspiracy to put an end to the rallies that 20 or 30 people hold from time to time in Lanzarote in favour of the Sahara.

But if the assessments of José Morales' defenders are being "disproportionate", those of his detractors are not far behind either. The icing on the cake was put this Thursday by the Unified Union of the National Police, with a totally improper press release, in which they seemed to forget that they are the representatives of the security of the State. They are there to ensure compliance with the law and to maintain order, but not to assess whether a person participates in many or few "protests and revelry" or whether or not they appear in the media. And much less to "invite" anyone to leave Spain.

They can come out in defence of their fellow police officer. They can, as they did, denounce and even arrest José Morales, if they really consider that he attacked an officer and disturbed public order at the rally last Friday. But what they cannot do is send out a press release making assessments about his private life, and much less questioning whether or not he participates in demonstrations or protests. Because otherwise, what they are doing is ending up giving arguments and strength to Morales and those who defend him.

If the problem is that he berated an officer and incited the rest of the demonstrators to do the same, leading to a violent situation, that is what should be assessed and denounced. And it should not be necessary to embellish the story any further, as it gives the impression that both sides are doing.

Unfortunately, the controversy that this issue has unleashed seems to have given free rein to the rage of those who systematically distrust anyone who wears a uniform, and also to those who take any excuse to attack immigrants. And that is even more worrying than the event itself, however serious it may have been. Therefore, it is unacceptable that one sector or the other is fuelling this crusade and these phobias.

In what happened last Friday in Arrecife, there are only three options: that the police officer really went too far, displaying his gun without even identifying himself as an officer; that José Morales and the rest of the demonstrators went too far, throwing themselves on top of a police officer who was doing his job; or that both went too far. And in the rule of law to which both sides appeal so much, that is resolved in the courts, and not with a brawl in the middle of the street, or with a subsequent battle of high-pitched press releases. By doing so, all they achieve is to discredit themselves.

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