On the evening of February 16, 2021, an 18-year-old young woman participating in a protest in Barcelona over the arrest of rapper Pablo Hasél lost an eye. A foam projectile launched by the Mossos d’Esquadra to control the riots hit her and left her injured. She filed a complaint, which has now been firmly dismissed by the judge of the Court of Instruction number 1 of Barcelona, Joaquín Aguirre. The judge not only sees no wrongdoing in the actions of the riot police but also believes the girl should “bear the consequences” for putting herself in danger by participating in a protest where serious altercations were taking place.
The judge believes there was no intention or recklessness in the actions of the three Mossos agents (two shotgunners and a Mobile Brigade commander) who were being investigated in the case. Acting under orders from a superior, the agents fired foam projectiles to prevent the protesters, who had been throwing all kinds of objects at them for some time, from overwhelming and entering the National Police station in Lesseps. The young woman was part of that group of between 300 and 400 people, so she “put herself in a dangerous situation”, according to the judge.
The arrest and imprisonment of Pablo Hasél sparked a wave of riots in various cities in Catalonia, particularly violent in Barcelona. On February 16, 2021, about 4,500 people participated in a protest in Lesseps Square. Half a thousand then headed to the nearby police station, where they “ambushed” and threw “blunt objects” at the riot police, who were protecting the facility and found themselves “surrounded by violent protesters”, according to the judge’s account.
At 8:18 pm, the head of the operation authorized the use of foam projectiles to ensure the safety of the agents. The judge emphasizes that the launch guns “are not designed at all for precision shots”, so it was impossible for any officer to avoid the possibility of “causing the loss of an eye” to a protester. From the account in the ruling, it is concluded that the young woman was indeed injured by a foam projectile, a type of projectile that replaced rubber balls a decade ago when they were banned in Catalonia.
Aguirre justifies the “proportionality” of the measure in the face of the “extraordinary violence” of the protesters, who, once dispersed after the shots, headed towards Paseo de Gràcia in Barcelona and caused serious damage to businesses. “In the event that these facts had occurred in the Basque Country before the ETA ceasefire, they would have been classified as terrorist acts (the so-called kale borroka)”, adds the ruling.
