Barcelona judge to investigate conduct of five more Spanish police officers during Oct 1 vote

Another five Spanish police officers are to be investigated over their conduct in polling places during the October 1 independence referendum last year. The decision comes a week after a judge decided to investigate the behavior of three other Spanish police officers at a Barcelona school on the same day.

Responding to civil lawsuits filed against the officers, after watching video footage from that day, the judge considered the level of force used by the officers to be disproportionate. The five officers now under investigation include four who were deployed in three different Barcelona schools, and one head of operations. In all, nine Spanish officers are being investigated in Barcelona.

In the decision to investigate three Spanish officers last week, the judge was swayed by videos and images showing aggressive conduct by Spanish police. In the images, the officers are seen aggressively punching and kicking voters as they forcibly remove them from a stairwell, with one woman roughly dragged down the stairs.

The judge based the decision on the fact that the officers had already reached the area with the ballot boxes, and no member of the public is shown committing “any remotely violent action.”