Two arrested in San Sebastián, one with 22 prior arrests

Stabbing in San Sebastián: one of the suspects had 22 prior arrests

How does someone reach 1:30 in the morning with a record of 22 arrests and 25 prior investigations, and there is still a debate about whether he should walk free? The question hangs over the arrest this Sunday in Donostia of two men accused of the attempted homicide of a 32-year-old man, whom the Ertzaintza (Basque police) found bloodied in the Old Town with three stab wounds. According to the Security Department of the Basque Government, officers were alerted to a fight and found the victim on their way to the scene. The man explained that he had been attacked by three people: while one held him, another stabbed him.

A record no one stops

What fuels the debate is not the incident itself, which is part of the routine of any city, but the profile of the alleged attacker: 22 arrests and 25 prior investigations. You do not need to be a lawyer to understand that a system which allows someone to accumulate more than twenty detentions and remain on the street has a hole in it. The usual explanations run into the same wall: the presumption of innocence, the lack of effective preventive measures and, in some cases, the impossibility of deporting those who have no country to return to.

Public frustration and its proposals

Among the reactions circulating, the tone ranges from resignation to demands for a tough approach. Some call for the law to be applied without leniency, some ask how many more times the same news will have to be read, and others point out that ultimate responsibility lies with judicial decisions. All of them lead to the same conclusion: the sense of impunity has taken hold on the street and confidence in the justice system is eroding. The court date will come another day; the ordinal for the twenty-third arrest, by the way, does not exist yet.