What is the first thing you remember when the date of the August 17, 2017?
He was in a meeting of the specific operational plan for violent robberies inside homes. And I remember some facts that we had never faced before, of extreme gravity and immediately an idea: “what we have to do, how to organize ourselves and act”. They activated me to go to the City of Justice with the police team that communicated the deaths to the families.
Lasted…
Much. Very beast.
How are, five years later, the agents who killed the terrorists in Cambrils and the author of the Barcelona attack?
This is never forgotten, but they have learned to manage it. The team of psychologists was created. With the memory of what happened. It’s an impact you’re not used to.
“What happened is never forgotten, you learn to manage”
What can society in general do in preventive terms regarding radicalism?
Combat all hate speech, all the forms it takes, from the mildest to the most serious. There is an escalation that begins with less serious conduct, at the criminal or administrative level, but which sustains this hateful conduct. Work must be done in all areas, in schools… To think that only criminal and police action will solve the problem is tremendously ineffective and imprecise. Work must be done on the education of values and on these behaviors.
That is, do not minimize.
Absolutely. Highlight the complexity and not underestimate these behaviors because they are the substrate that later allows much more serious behaviors, which can become criminal. In Catalonia we are lucky that since the approval in December of the law on discriminatory treatment, the possibility has been opened up to prosecute conduct through administrative channels that, although they are less serious from a criminal point of view, are from the meaning of the violence. When the Penal Code was modified in 2015 and the entire book of offenses fell, you could insult a black person and it was not prosecutable. It has to work from the most micro to the most macro.
How is it addressed at school?
In the community relations offices, prevention plans are worked on in educational communities with a new format, face-to-face, based on Piet Mentoring, in which it is not the uniformed police officer who goes to a class of 20 students to explain, because this is not effective. And what is done is, through the tutors, a small group of students who do the training sessions are trained. In this way, proximity by age and maturational growth is sought so that the impact is higher. We are a tool for coexistence but we are not the only one.
“We are a tool for coexistence, but not the only one”
What do you think of the support for the victims, which they have judged insufficient?
Unfortunately, the attacks have been a learning point, a turning point. Any performance can be improved. I have in my mind personal issues from the days when the communications were made. What happened has made us all grow. After the attacks, work was done to improve procedures and the victims were at the center. They were a very important and key point of reflection. The most victim-centric approach is key because the suffering is incomparable. The suffering of families cannot be compared to anything and our obligation is to put it at the center of the debate and at the center of the continuous improvement process.
The social vision of the Mossos, which after the attacks were highly praised and subsequently received severe criticism in other areas, changes very radically. How do they value it?
We have never felt questioned. Perhaps for some sectors, yes. If we work with rigor and professionalism, this gives us legitimacy. And being able to explain and communicate it better, maybe yes.
What is the lesson of 17-A?
Continuous improvement. Do not lower your guard on terrorism issues. And work in all areas, also in prevention, in the educational field, of the victims. Work at all levels, not just pure and simple research. And feel that we can improve, that this is our duty.
“The suffering of the victims cannot be compared to anything”
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Were there humanly rewarding moments?
Yes, with the staff of the CUESB (Center for Urgencies and Social Emergencies of Barcelona), with the Red Cross, Mossos, scientific police, forensic doctors… The CUESB took care of us because we had never faced circumstances as chilling as an attack, with families from abroad, who had traveled 20 hours, who did not understand anything, with the media reporting news that was not true. , families who believed for that reason that they would find a living relative and they were not… I keep the lesson of civility of the people, of commitment and solidarity.