- SOS Racism Bizkaia has denounced the records and identifications that the Municipal Police of Bilbao has made to a group of young Senegalese people. The association denounces that such interventions occur systematically and are driven by racism.
Last Wednesday, 4 November, the last racist event denounced by SOS Racism Bizkaia took place in the Biscayan capital. The Municipal Police of Bilbao approached a group of young Senegalese who were at the pier of Marzana in Bilbao La Vieja.
According to the testimonies of the facts, the people who were chasing them questioned the attitude of the agents, to which the officers informed that neighbors in the area had called the Municipal Police to inform them of the consumption of illegal substances.
SOS Racism has reported that, following the records carried out, the municipal police officers withdrew without leaving any trace of denunciation. They have denounced that the registers carried out by the Municipal Police in this area, which is the framework for the socialization of various racialized people, are motivated by racism. For the Association, proof of this is that the point of attention of these registries is a collective of racialized people and that interventions are carried out systematically. “For example, two days later, on 6 November, the Municipal Police returned to that place to make a similar intervention,” he said.
In addition to denouncing racist police intervention, the association has also denounced the racism of neighbours: “When the police say they act because the neighbors call them, it may or may not be true, but if they are, they would act as a consequence of the social racism of the neighbors, a racism that is perpetual and unacceptable. How long will the Municipal Police continue to give credibility to these racist calls?” They have also pointed out that behind racist police persecution there is institutional racism that divides society into two: between those who can walk and sit in the public space and those who cannot.
The association has warned that racially-driven police interventions are causing the criminalization of some communities and that security has nothing to do with racist or mass registers. For their part, they have announced that they will not allow this type of intervention to be normalised.