Andalusian man's despair after being mugged by a hooded thief at Madrid Atocha

Mugging at Atocha: the Andalusian victim and the reaction that blames him for his moustache

An Andalusian man reports being mugged by a hooded thief at Madrid's Atocha station. The video he himself posted shows his distress: "Mentally, I'm destroyed." But instead of solidarity, what it has generated in certain corners of the internet is a torrent of mockery, homophobia and victim blaming.

The victim's profile, under scrutiny
The man's appearance – moustache, flashy T-shirt, effeminate gestures – immediately became the centre of the debate. A majority faction claims that "dressed like that", "he looks like he's from Chueca" or "he looks like a faggot", and that the robbery was therefore to be expected, even deserved. "I see that moustache and the least I'd do is mug him", sums up one comment that captures the prevailing mood. He is compared to a 1970s pensioner, and his melodramatic reaction is mocked.

The shadow of immigration and "enjoy what you voted for"
Against those who focus on the victim, another current – a minority, but present – points to the mugger's origin. It is taken for granted that the thief is a foreigner ("the odds of him being Spanish are around 2%"), and it is used as a chance to attack immigration and asylum policies. "Enjoy what you voted for" is the refrain linking the crime to voting for the left, as if the victim, given his appearance, were necessarily pogre. The implicit conclusion: the robbery is a logical consequence of having backed mass immigration.

The anecdote of the Russian giant as a contrast
Amid the thread, a reference to former Soviet basketball player Vladimir Tkachenko (2.21 m) serves to illustrate what some consider the proper response: according to urban legend, when burglars tried to break into his home, his sheer physical presence deterred them. The sarracena being that the Andalusian, with his apparent weakness, was an easy target. The comparison reinforces the idea that the victim failed to defend himself and that, in a way, he asked for it.

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What the Atocha video has unleashed is less a debate about public safety than a projection of culture wars: gender, immigration, voting. The uncomfortable question left hanging is whether any profile of victim truly deserves solidarity, or whether it all comes down to whether they fit the correct political side.

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