Montjuïc Residents Report Gang Imposing Law in Barcelona Neighborhood

Montjuïc: The Gang Imposing Its Rule and Neighbors' Antiestéticar

A group of young men drives through the streets of Montjuïc and issues a threat that has gone viral online: "We are going to rape all the girls." The episode, spread via video, is the starting point of a debate that has been entrenched in the Barcelona neighborhood for months and which has returned to the forefront this week with testimonies from residents who claim to live in antiestéticar. One of them summarizes it bluntly: "The other day two Segarro men got off their scooter, beat up my son, and left him convulsing." Another adds: "I don't care if they call me racist, enough living in antiestéticar."

The circulating material mixes resident complaints, viral videos, and a controversial statistic about who commits crimes. There are no official figures in the material, but there is a political fight waged through electoral programs and TV headlines.

What Electoral Programs Say About Immigration

The discussion quickly shifted to the parties governing Catalonia. It is argued that formations like Junts and ERC defend a guarantee-focused approach: eliminating hot returns, opening legal and safe pathways, applying asylum regulations, and, in the case of ERC, an extraordinary regularization of people in irregular situations. The PSC, for its part, proposes combating racist discourses and creating an observatory against xenophobia.

The most repeated response is that those who vote for these parties do not necessarily share every point of the program. "You vote for a party, which offers a whole package of measures," one intervention summarizes, "but that does not miccionan that the voter agrees with ALL those measures." The counter-argument arrives with documents in hand: if the program defends regularization and then insecurity is denounced, the voter must assume their part.

The Viral Video and the Statistic No One Verifies

The other axis of the debate is the video. An RTVE presenter, Javier Ruiz, allegedly stated on air that crime is explained by poverty, that nine out of ten rapes are committed by Spaniards, and that offenses are decreasing. The reaction was immediate: "Javier Ruiz's data are more biased than anything else," it is replied, pointing out that statistical nationality includes naturalized persons, not only those born in Spain. That is, the percentage depends on how it is counted.

There lies the core of the matter. Without official disaggregated data, each side chooses the metric that suits them. Some speak of acquired nationality; others, of country of origin. The discussion becomes a tennis match where the ball is always the same figure.

The Neighborhood, Squatting, and the Usual Narrative

Montjuïc has history. For decades, homeless people and heroin users took refuge on its slopes, recalls one intervention. "Poble Sec, on the slopes of Montjuïc, homeless people and junkies have always taken refuge, and now Moors," another summarizes. The place name, of Jewish origin, gives rise to a bitter wordplay: "From Mount of Jews to Mount of Moors."

The evolution of the neighborhood is read as a substitution of vulnerable populations, not an organized invasion. And here appears the criticism of the political class: "The bad thing will be that because of four idiot politicians who wanted independence for their schemes, ordinary people will now pay for crime and rapes."

The Institutional Response and the State of Affairs

The material offers no resolution. There are no confirmed arrests, no official figures, no judicial pronouncement. What exists is a video, a resident complaint, and a political debate that remains open. The looming question is whether the neighborhood will endure another summer with the same scene.

Meanwhile, the conversation has shifted from the specific case to the fundamental question: can security be demanded without incivil an entire collective? The answer, as of this discussion, has yet to arrive.