The Municipal Police entered the portal on 7 May at night, knocking on the door, without permission and illegally, identifying and violently threatening a family of three minors, fining three other people in their home, trying to prevent them with lies and lies the work of the ARGIA journalist who was taking pictures of the operation. The identified family was in this house without electricity or water because it was expelled from the room in which they lived in the middle of the confinement and to which the social services offered no resources, except the bus ticket to another city in the state. In the next three weeks, the police will make at least five more raids on the Belfast portal.

Police

On 12 May, the Ertzaintza reappeared on the portal without permission to re-identify the same family, to repeat the same threats – of illegality, crime and expulsion –. On May 16, the Municipal Police came in the same way to another house in the portal, with an iron rod of metro height to open the portal. On 26 and 28 May, and on 1 June, the Municipal Police once again attacked the two people who intended to enter to live on a floor of the same portal, charged with usurpation and evicted from their homes, and covered the doors covered with the workers, in another. In none of the above cases has the portal door been called nor has permission been requested before entering.

Police Neighbours

Every time an "abnormal" movement occurred, the Police appeared on the portal within a few hours or minutes of the morning. In general, the presence of the Police in the area is considerable, probably also of police officers from the country. But, more than that, what proves the effectiveness of the Police is the task of constantly monitoring a few neighbours of the parallel housing block. You don't have to believe it. The neighbors of the occupied dwellings have the entrance and exit of the portals normalized when they see someone photographing from the balconies in front. Also to the children. When they see a new person or a movement they consider unusual, they call the police, suspecting they are occupying a new home. Within a few minutes there is the Municipal Police, in an attitude of “we come to avoid an infraganti crime”.

The attitude of those neighbors who work as policemen and as whistleblowers is really curious. They are reproached for having their forehead, as if they had occupied a palatine, as the best option to live those who have a place without light and without water and full of police, the other is a red street. Municipalities oppose the replenishment of water or light by saying that it would be a privilege, that they pay water and light. It's curious. It is the people who lived in those houses abandoned by the City Hall who say these things. These old dwellings were replaced by adjacent official protective dwellings. However, they have no complaints about the “privilege” of accessing subsidized housing with public money in private property. It's curious. They understand that they can take pictures of anyone, of any child, and make them public. But when the ARGIA journalist took a photo of one of them, he found it so serious that he called the police again. And he didn't stop until the police identified him, just in case, with what he would do with the photo, while from his balcony he shouted, "Why do you have to take a picture of me!"

Police journalism

Three days after that anecdote on image rights, the newspaper El Correo used a photograph taken from the balcony of one of the police's neighbors. Taken the day before and with an anonymous signature: AAC. This is not the first time. Olarizu’s “legal neighbours” call themselves those who demand to fight the other neighbours. In this newspaper, the association has a great preaching, although no one knows who they are or how many.

Although media persecution is widespread, El Correo has been campaigning for months against people living in the abandoned homes of Olarizu. Using “legal neighbours” as the main source and above all the police. Giving the greatest possible impact to any conflict that occurs. Once again, with the prominent role of a well-known journalist in the movements against discrimination and racism in Vitoria-Gasteiz. Known precisely for the deepening of discrimination and racism, the use of police sources and sensationalism symbolize

Police station

The main responsibility for the campaign of criminalisation, in any case, is the City Hall of Vitoria-Gasteiz. Media, police and political persecution has long been initiated. In addition to the attitude of the Municipal Police in charge, limited to the three weeks we are counting, it should be noted that both the Ararteko and the Trustee (Ombudsman of Vitoria-Gasteiz) have publicly stated that the City Hall should replenish the water in the houses of Olarizu, only to guarantee the hygiene measures that have been established in the coronavirus emergency. They have both refused.

The City Hall says that people living in the abandoned homes of Olarizu have to resort to emergency social services. Luis Álava lived for a year and a half in Olarizu and the lockdown is happening in the evictions center of Lakua: “They tell us, ‘what you want is your front, the house by kiss’. The mayor sends you through the press to the Social Emergency Services of San Antonio, they leave you and tell you that there is no place anywhere.” As explained by the Trustee: "There are Olarizu families who have come [to social emergency social services], but they continue to live there, so they have not been able to offer an alternative."

Olarizu. Police food with police mindset, neighbors, journalism and politicians. Thanks to the people and collectives who, in the face of this police mentality, are directed towards solidarity and communism in our city.