Congratulations to Juan Robles Gonzalez for Amazing Footage & Reporting
by pinkagendist
Photo by Jasper Juinen/Getty Images
If there wasn’t video, I would have had a hard time believing this was going on in Western Europe. Turkey, perhaps, but here? Over 30 years after the death of the dictator? Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose. In the shocking images below you will see the anti-disturbios (riot police) attack the population randomly. You will see them shooting rubber bullets at people who may simply be on their way home. You will see them open fire into a train station and harass people thoughtlessly, sometimes hitting passers-by for no apparent reason. You will see a brave business owner letting a crowd into his restaurant and protecting them from the police. You will see a bloodied face, a man in a wheelchair being protected by another man while he screams Verguenza, Verguenza (shame, shame) over and over again. You will see the maker of the video harassed, threatened and his camera damaged by the police in a most outrageous form of press intimidation- and it all happened yesterday, in Madrid. Congratulations to Juan Robles Gonzalez for a video that made my eyes water in sadness and shame.
Wow! If not for your post, I would probably not have seen any of it… wish I spoke more Spanish. Nice job Pink!
The footage in the train station was the most disturbing to me, as those people clearly seemed to have no where to go, and were not actively harassing the police. On the street, both sides were very provocative, though it was clear to see many innocent demonstrators assaulted. Incredible video!
Provocative, yes, but if the police is using their batons so randomly and shooting into crowds, I imagine I might throw a chair at them too- had I been there.
Their responsibility is to protect the population, not to oppress it.
Absolutely! The video is very compelling… I am only noting that we see a short period of time, and tempers seemed to be pretty high on both sides. The video in the train station is appalling and very disturbing! Glad the cameraman managed to keep the footage!
Shocking
Maybe the world really is coming to an end..
Ai. Fiquei doente ao assistir. A impressao mais forte que levei deste video, e que as pessoas sao os mesmos em todo lugar. A gente de Madrid parece muito como a gente dos Estados Unidos, so que falam em espanhol (e de verdade, muitos de nos falam espanhol tambem). Se isto pode acontecer la, o que nao pode acontecer aqui? Existe a seguranca? Talvez devo voltar ao Brasil, o lugar mais pacifico que ja vi. Mas talvez eles tambem estejam prontos a brigar, mesmo que eu nao sei quais sao os problemas de la. Ai. Me da medo.
They are certainly as ready to fight as anywhere else. Brazilian police is brutal. The days of torture and military dictatorship were monstrous- perhaps a tiny bit less monstrous than Spain, but only because Brazil was trying hard to keep tourism alive.
What will Spain do without tourism? And people who voted for Rajoy think he will save the economy. I voted for Izquierda unida, the communist party, because I don’t believe in an asshole like Rajoy.
Yes. Last week before going on holiday, I was on my way home and saw this confrontation on my way home. So I avoided it by sitting at a bar and getting drunk on a week night. One thing you didn’t see in this video was the helicopters hovering over us.
Cheers Pink – heavy stuff indeed. Sooz saw some of this last night on FB and told me about the people surrounding the parliament.
The police were trying to terrorise the people and it made me think of the fascist past and Francisco Franco y Bahamonde.
The State are scared perhaps?
Where were you? I was worried you’d been affected by the floods…
Washed up and washed out occasionally but thankfully high and dry enough.
Many of the motorways and A roads had lots of surface water and it was horribly dark.
We went to Gloucester in the wet wet wet West Country, visiting our youngest who’s at uni down that way.
I imagine Cheltenham’s more your kind of town?
I don’t have a ‘my kind of town’- I refuse to be a member of any club that would accept me as a member
Ah, a Marxist, eh?
Well, whatever it is, I’m against it…
Pity, because I think Cheltenham would have really liked you. Oh well, there’s plenty more where that came from.
What that old song lyric, musicman? It goes something like, “There’s a thousand towns in the USA – just like this!”
I hate watching the police attack protesters.
All real violence is disturbing.
And I think pretend violence has a lot to answer for.
Thanks for sharing this video. And thank God for video cameras so we have proof. People in America have been arrested for filming the police when it’s not against the law to do so.
Wow
I can see that there were some hot heads in the crowd but the majority of people were protesting peacefully. The police response was berserk. 
Are we heading for this generations’ wake up? Will we see a resurgence in grass roots programs? Will Lowerarchy grow as a movement? We are so divided in the US, I can see this happening here in the right circumstances. It’s especially scary to see this in a democratic country. What’s happened before can happen again.
It’s appalling. The one positive aspect of modernity is that abuses cannot be hidden away any more.
That is one positive.
[...] and shared a truly remarkable video that was taken as things dissolved several nights ago. That post is well worth reading, then check out Pink’s other updates. What is happening there is [...]