“They know we went for the blades and now they’re sharpening the forks”

2024-09-28 12:23:25

BarcelonaThe stage is a good example for the Raval in Barcelona. A photo of two police officers in plainclothes. They took a selfie after they caught the thief and took the knife from him. From behind, a hateful homeless man poked his head out. The police saw and smiled. They know each other from long hours, the same way another worker and another homeless man talking a meter away know each other. The man carried a bag and a bicycle. The police asked him about the woman. Well a script twist turns an affable scene into one of heroic action. A man started running. The leaders run after him. The blue lights and sirens of patrol cars begin to flood the streets of Ciutat Vella. In the four-star hotel Barceló Raval, the background of the open selfie, the lights are disco and the soundtrack is electronic music. A ceremony was held there.

It is the first debut for the first day of the machine in Barcelona to fight against white weapons, announced last week by the Ministry of the Interior and which ARA was able to follow from the inside. It was already midnight. An hour earlier, one of the rooms of the Ciutat Vella police station was filled to overflowing. Representatives of the Mossos, Urbana, maritime police and private security personnel attended a meeting that took the form of a harangue. Like the changing room before a game. The goal is to “claim all melee weapons.” And do it without guilt, “with total respect”. And there are jokes to rest, like saying that one boy looks a lot like the other. Everyone laughed. Everything to complete the playground frame: controls in the areas with the most presence of saws. In other words, in front of the sea, in Paral·lel, in Maria Cristina, in Raval… An option linked to nightlife. “Today we are looking for weapons, not criminals,” said Mossos Superintendent Rafa Tello, one of the heads of the operation together with Superintendent Urbana Begoña Alday.

The first act of the night also reinforced the football metaphor. When he got to the Rambla del Raval, a thief attacked an English tourist playing “Ronaldinho”. The method is known as such because the thief approaches the victim and touches his leg with his leg. In this way, the thief catches the attention of the victim, he puts his hand in his pocket and takes out his mobile phone. Before long, he was up against the wall. “In London they are not efficient enough,” said the tourist. “A cell phone is nothing,” said the thief. “That’s what happens to you for robbery,” a policeman replied. In a bag they found a large knife, more than a long blade. Two in one It’s not the first arrest of the thief (he already has five in 2024), but it’s the first knife of the night. The first of 39 in Barcelona (the rate is high, during the five nights of Mercè 68 requested) and 131 throughout Catalonia. In total, 675 identities with 2,122 records are recognized in the Catalan capital. The success rate of knife detection is 5.78%.

Officers did other IDs (all men) and searches with metal detectors. It’s comfortable, lightweight, and beeps (or vibrates, you can choose) every time it detects metal. GUB representatives, however, warned that it was too ambitious. To the point that sometimes you whistle for a hip prosthesis. They are already there. In the first place of Raval they found an American fist, a knife and a fork. “Yes, a fork. Since they knew we were behind the saws, they sharpened the sides of the forks to cut,” said an employee. The selfie scene with the homeless man arrived. A dozen workers started sprinting after a young man who had started to run. He didn’t get caught even though he was wearing flip-flops.

Cocaine in the blind

The chase lasted about 500 meters. Several policemen arrested the young man. “He dropped it,” said one. The boy replied that he didn’t do anything. “Put a spear in his chest so you don’t eat him,” ordered another officer. They check from top to bottom and you know. One of the police officers explained: “When they were chasing him, he must have thrown everything on the ground.” At that moment, two travelers with small suitcases entered a room at the next door. The workers retraced their steps, searching the ground with flashlights. One puts his fingers through the holes of a sidewalk on Carrer de Santa Elena and pulls out a green paper. cocaine He explained that those who sell drugs on the street do not take it with them, but they hide it in the places where they push it in the houses they use, and if they have someone who buy it, they will search for it.

While in Raval the agents ended up letting the young man go free, in Vila Olímpica the Mossos checked white weapons at the metro exit. Another is in Barceloneta and Poblenou. Officers come from many different parts, uniform and plain clothes. Next to Sala Apolo there are two from Urbana. When asked why they took it, they took three blades and an American fist from the glove compartment. Control is random, “like the police”. Above all, they look for young people with an exceptional personality or with a certain beauty. An agent says that he is often led by those dressed in the “French” style: Hats, football shirts, those on scooters… They become suspicious when they see two young people who suddenly leave their separate ways. They look for them. They know. None of them were offended by the administration, but by the camera of this newspaper, which took their picture. It all took about ten minutes. Is time lost? In the end, as Mayor Tello explained, they have not only gone to the streets to fight white weapons, but also against the feeling of insecurity.