A video with Spanish police violence goes viral

Police violence has become a trending issue lately, after the murder of George Floyd in the United States and the subsequent unrests. In Catalonia, some people have drawn comparisons between the attitude of the Minneapolis police and that of the Spanish police during the Catalan independence referendum of 1 October 2017. In this context, the following video has spread rapidly through social nets:

The brutality of Spanish police during the referendum left more than 1000 peaceful voters injured. Both the UN and the Council of Europe called on the Spanish authorities to launch an internal investigation into the conduct of Spanish police officers, but such investigation was never carried out. Human rights associations such as Amnesty or HRW also criticized Spanish police violence and the fact that Spain’s prosecutor and the Ministry of Interior were “obstructing” the investigations.

In October 2019, the lengthy prison sentences against Catalan pro-independence leaders caused a huge wave of protests in Catalonia that were also met with police violence that was documented in several videos.