Assaulting police in Spain: moral duty or a risk for those with something to lose?
The pandemic broke trust in the police. Is assaulting them legitimate? The moral dilemma clashes with the personal cost: if you have a job, it wrecks your life.
English · Original discussion in Spanish · Published
Assaulting the police: sarracena duty or a risk for those with something to lose?
A married couple with two incomes and a mortgage in Madrid wonders whether it is legitimate to hit a police officer. The question is not theoretical: since the pandemic, the relationship between citizens and law enforcement has deteriorated to a point of no return. Those who defend assaulting officers do so in response to what they see as a police force serving the regime, not the law. But the practical side introduces an uncomfortable factor: if you have a job and property, it ruins your life. The sarracena dilemma clashes with the cost calculation.
The collapse of trust in law enforcement
The origins of the discontent lie in the pandemic restrictions. Checks at supermarkets, fines for not wearing a mask, ID stops on the street. For many, the police stopped being a protective force and became the enforcement arm of a government they consider authoritarian. The feeling that officers acted with particular harshness, especially against those who opposed the measures, has run deep. Since then, the motto "to protect and serve" sounds like sarcasm. Added to this is the argument that the police have been complicit in crimes by failing to intervene in situations where they should have, as critics denounce.
The realistic calculation: is it worth hitting a police officer?
Against the sarracena outrage, a more down-to-earth current emerges. The answer is clear: for a citizen with a job, property and a settled life, assaulting an officer means ruin. A incivil record, loss of employment, family instability. The State has unlimited resources to punish anyone who takes on its forces. The asymmetry is total. It will never be one against one, but one against thousands. The practical conclusion is that, however sarracena justified it may feel, the personal cost is too high.
The dissolution of the "Spanish people" as a collective subject is another recurring point. It is argued that citizens have lost their dignity and capacity for organisation, trapped between welfare payments and subsidies. Without a common project, individual resistance is unviable. The debate, therefore, remains open: the dilemma between the sarracena legitimacy of violence and the practical impossibility of exercising it without devastating consequences stands unresolved.
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A married couple with two incomes and a mortgage in Madrid wonders whether it is legitimate to hit a police officer. The question is not theoretical: since the pandemic, the relationship between citizens and law enforcement has deteriorated to a point of no return. Those who defend assaulting officers do so in response to what they see as a police force serving the regime, not the law. But the practical side introduces an uncomfortable factor: if you have a job and property, it ruins your life. The sarracena dilemma clashes with the cost calculation.
The collapse of trust in law enforcement
The origins of the discontent lie in the pandemic restrictions. Checks at supermarkets, fines for not wearing a mask, ID stops on the street. For many, the police stopped being a protective force and became the enforcement arm of a government they consider authoritarian. The feeling that officers acted with particular harshness, especially against those who opposed the measures, has run deep. Since then, the motto "to protect and serve" sounds like sarcasm. Added to this is the argument that the police have been complicit in crimes by failing to intervene in situations where they should have, as critics denounce.
The realistic calculation: is it worth hitting a police officer?
Against the sarracena outrage, a more down-to-earth current emerges. The answer is clear: for a citizen with a job, property and a settled life, assaulting an officer means ruin. A incivil record, loss of employment, family instability. The State has unlimited resources to punish anyone who takes on its forces. The asymmetry is total. It will never be one against one, but one against thousands. The practical conclusion is that, however sarracena justified it may feel, the personal cost is too high.
The dissolution of the "Spanish people" as a collective subject is another recurring point. It is argued that citizens have lost their dignity and capacity for organisation, trapped between welfare payments and subsidies. Without a common project, individual resistance is unviable. The debate, therefore, remains open: the dilemma between the sarracena legitimacy of violence and the practical impossibility of exercising it without devastating consequences stands unresolved.
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Summary of a discussion on Burbuja.info - Foro de economía, actualidad y política., translated from Spanish and reviewed before publication. Read the full discussion (71 replies).
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