“what I insult enter in the salary“, explains one of the policemen of the four patrols of the Barcelona City Guard that this morning of June 4 are operational in the Ciutat Vella district. “That’s not the problem,” adds one of his classmates. “What worries us is that we see that they respect us less and less, that they confront us, that if they are in a group they cheer to challenge us and that, often, they can end up attacking us”, they agree.
The municipal police officers point out that the exasperating pandemic has been irritating citizens, especially the youngest, who ended up getting fed up with the prohibitions. And that now that these have disappeared, there are many who do not tolerate the slightest police intervention that begs them to stop drinking in the street or play music with loudspeakers on public roads, activities that, with or without coronavirus, are prohibited in Barcelona and they must be pursued. The city is waking up “strong” from the lethargy that covid-19 has meant, they warn. EL PERIÓDICO has followed this past morning the patrols of the Urban Guard through the oldest district of the city. This is what he has found:
Rolex thief arrested
It’s just before ten o’clock and the first crime requiring your attention has already been committed. A ‘watchmaker’, that is, a violent thief specializing in ripping high-end watches off tourists’ wrists, has stolen a Rolex in Sant Pere Mitjà street valued at about 20,000 euros and has fled. He hasn’t gone very far: agents have been able to arrest him within minutes, while he was trying to hide the watch in a neighborhood doorway. “We have not been able to find the victim, we imagine that she was scared and went to the hotel,” they lament, detailing something that is not uncommon.
An hour later, the Urbana, accompanied by its riot police, begins the evacuation of the squares of Els Àngels or Terenci Moix. They do it before midnight to allow them to enter the cleaning crews. “And if I didn’t turn them over to the police, would these young people go up against the cleanup crews and stop them from doing their job?” The policemen nod to answer. Actually, and despite the fact that tonight they are not particularly unruly because they are less than usual thanks to the Spring Sound, there have been some young people who have decided to ignore the flashing devices of the patrols. “We do fine these for drinking on the street, it’s 15 euros if paid right away“, they clarify.
As they work to break up bottles, a call comes in about a suicide attempt. A 28 year old woman has been caught jumping onto the Barceloneta metro track. The guards have discovered her in time and the woman has gone, according to her notice, to try again at another station. Fortunately, Urbana agents intercept her before her and she ends up accepting a voluntary admission to a psychiatric hospital.
knife fight
Before the end of ‘grazing’ to empty the Raval squares of young people –that is what they call the strategy of pushing the masses little by little so that they free up the space–, enter the radio station a knife fight. Two young men who frequent a bar near the Botero cat monument have gotten into a bitter brawl. One of them has several wounds and has also been threatened and poked with a knife. The aggressor, much younger than him, ends up arrested.
When the patrol car, after finishing the service, goes around the Rambla del Raval to continue emptying the bottles, a young blonde from Argentina approaches it and speaks in a rush because her mobile has just been stolen. “I consulted it for a moment to find a street, I put it in my holster and a few seconds later it was gone.” The agents get out of the car and go to the exact spot where the woman says she was robbed. It has happened in front of a hotel on Hospital Street that has cameras. The recordings have captured it: it is seen how a man has been placed right behind her and that, as soon as she has put the phone in the holster, she has slipped her hand into the fanny pack and has taken out the device without her noticing.
violent robbery
About two o’clock at night, a new service comes in related to another violent robbery. A couple of men who had accompanied a friend to catch a taxi are violently assaulted by a pickpocket on Carrer d’En Roig. One has torn a gold chain and another, the mobile phone. Fortunatelythe screams of both victims alert another Urbana patrol, who hits the brakes, gets out of the vehicle and starts a chase on foot that ends up catching the suspect. This, reduced by Urbana, resists as much as he can and ends up hesitating to the police: “I’ll get out of jail right away.”
“I don’t know what happened, I had the phone in my hand,” explains one of the men, visibly upset. “I didn’t even realize that he had tried to steal my gold chain,” stresses the other victim, who has a red mark on the neck due to pulling that he has received but shows signs of being blocked by fright.
Incidents have continued to pour in throughout the night. The last ones have been thefts, recorded during the time slot that coincides with the closure of bars and nightclubs. Several clients have approached beaches such as Somorrostro where ‘neglectors’ were waiting for them who stole their belongings while they rested on the sand for a while, before returning home.
The criminal normality
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Few more reliable indicators to measure the pulse of the city than looking at crime data. During 2020 and 2021 very low data were recorded. This 2022 points is different, crime is recovering. “Above all, the rise in violent robberies is noticeable,” police sources explain. EL PERIODICO has witnessed three only tonight without leaving Ciutat Vella.
This is an unintended consequence of the economic recovery and, above all, of the return of tourism. That the thieves have returned and the large bottles have not left does not mean for the deputy mayor of security, Albert Batlle, that the city must resign itself to suffering a summer of crime and incivility. Last Monday, during the presentation of the device that will last until September 5, he encouraged not to surrender to the advent of the side effects of recovery “as if they were the eleventh plague of Egypt.” That’s where the cops are.