The driver of the vehicle told a woman of North African origin that he yelled at her “whore”, “bitch”, “fucking Moors” and “go to your country”.
“He told me to go to my country, he pulled my veil and called me a whore and a bitch,” said the North African woman who travels with her three minor children on a Barcelona bus and who was the victim of the racist attack. by the driver. The Court of Barcelona has now condemned said bus driver. DSF to six months in prison and a fine of 1,800 euros for a hate crime. The incident occurred on May 29, 2020, in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. The judges maintain that the defendant “threw” the victim “a message of intolerance, intransigence and verbal violence, with a clear conscience and desire to attack her person.”
The Section 3 ruling declares it proven that around 6:00 p.m. that day, the woman, HBEA, got in a vehicle with her children. line V19 in calle Santuario. The card of one of her daughters did not work and she turned to the driver, the defendant DSF. He did not give any indication, “although he did take the opportunity to make allusions to his ethnic origin, since he presented clothing typical of the North African culture, including a veil covering his hair, including some phrase like you come here to live from the story,” they detail. the magistrates.
Later, as the woman and her children sat on the bus, the defendant continued to make comments about his ethnic origin. After several stops, he went to her to tell her that he had to leave the vehicle, “which was celebrated by some of the passengers who were traveling there,” the resolution argues. Faced with this situation, the user abandoned the vehicle and, once on the ground, prepared to take a photograph of the bus license plate with her mobile phone.
The driver, after driving a few meters, stopped the bus abruptly, got off and, “very alternately”, began to shout and uttered insulting expressions towards the woman like “whore& rdquor;, “bitch& rdquor;, “putos moros& rdquor; or “go to your country & rdquor;. At the same time, she made as if she wanted to remove the veil from her head and also take a picture of her with her mobile phone. Her three children reacted by standing next to her to protect her from her, so that the defendant, “because of the anger that dominated him”, took them from her arms to separate them from her, details the sentence. A minor was pulled by the hair. In the end, the bus driver, after the reproachful reaction of some passers-by who were passing by, re-entered the vehicle and drove it away from the place. The minors suffered some injuries.
Repeated and violent expressions
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The judges hold that “the action, the expressions pronounced, repeatedly and violently employed have ample capacity to injure the dignity of the person to whom they are addressed. Its patently derogatory character and the invitation to leave the country can only be explained from the denial of the right to the development of free personality, from the denial of the person and the condition of citizen, from an attitude of exclusive intolerance”. In his opinion , that “capacity has been seen, in this case, materialized in the affectation suffered by the complainant of the facts, an affectation that is clearly manifested in her statement and that also extends to her children.” In any case, the majority of people would feel their dignity affected if the message is repeatedly received that, because you are a Moor, you have to leave the country”.
The court considers that also there are reasons for discrimination based on belonging to a race or ethnic group. In this sense, it alleges that the expression “moro & rdquor; it has “a very clear meaning in Spain and we all know it”, since “it has incorporated (connotation) the value of considering the Maghrebis as inferior people, for cultural and historical reasons, as well as a clear contempt and discredit”. He acknowledges that this expression can be pronounced without such a connotation, “but said use requires a special nuance that we perceive in the defendant’s words.” “We are not facing a simple discussion”, but rather a situation of conduct “reprehensible for affecting the dignity of a person; and, above all, it is not about simple insults”, he concludes