Spain's police double standard: batons for the estelada, leniency for attackers

Police double standard: batons for the estelada, tolerance for the attacker

Why does a young man carrying an estelada end up beaten with batons while those who assault the police roam free? That is the question running through public debate after an incident for which the police force seems to offer no coherent explanation. The scene, according to the account circulating, shows an officer beating a citizen for carrying a pro-independence flag, and the same institution that dares not stand up to those who attack it. The bitter conclusion: the law is applied according to the suspect's identity.

No authority seems to know what is going on

What outrages people is not just the baton blow; it is the absence of a public apology, the silence of the Ministry of the Interior, and the suspicion that certain groups enjoy a free pass. The official version, if it exists, has not arrived. Instead, the impression grows that the police trinc orders without question, even when those orders reveal a political bias. The reference to the silent submissions of decades ago no longer seems so distant: the officer does not ask, he obeys, and in a state that claims to be one of law, that is a serious problem.

Taxes, defense and the credibility of the state

Here comes the economics. Taxpayers do not pay taxes so that the police can hand out beatings selectively, but so that the law is enforced equally for everyone. When the scales tip, trust in institutions collapses, and with it the willingness to pay taxes. Put bluntly: if the state does not protect you but protects others, tax rebellion stops being a joke and becomes a rational strategy.

Meanwhile, the ordinary citizen reduces the matter to a single scene: the estelada earned a police charge, the attacker a good dose of understanding. And one wonders whether the next person to pay taxes will have the right to choose which flag protects their money.