In order to denounce the police violence suffered by some residents of Bilbao la Vieja on October 15, a rally was called on Thursday in the Plaza de Bilbao la Vieja.
In a note sent by the neighbours, the circumstances of the events are explained and it is stated that the case of police violence occurred last Thursday, 15 October. It can be read that by midnight two citizens were "violently detained" and two others were subjected to the Moorish law.
The information that has been given about the event in some media is incorrect, as underlined in the letter. According to the version given in them, while the police performed an intervention to ensure health, several citizens approached the police, hampering their work and assaulting the agents. “A good excuse for the times in which we live, but no health intervention was hampered or assaulted by any agent,” the paper says.
The event has been explained by the neighbors, who, realizing that a neighbor was receiving violent and insulting treatment from the police, several neighbors started videotaping what was happening. “That’s what angered the agents, directly arresting two neighbors,” they explained. They have also reported that one of the detainees was subjected to machista insults by the police.
They have stressed that the attack is far from being an isolated event, with one more episode on the list of police abuses occurring in the "severely militarized" neighborhoods of Bilbao La Vieja and San Francisco. Moreover, they have pointed out that these attacks, which are carried out by the police, tend to have racist, chauvinist, clasile motivations, etc.
In the face of this story and this particular attack, they have called to mobilize and value solidarity among the neighbors: “We appeal to denounce all abuses of power. In order to put an end to the militarisation that we suffer every day, we must promote care and protection between neighbours and neighbours. In the face of police abuse, neighborhood solidarity”.