The Free

Fury in Catalonia Over Abuse of Amnesty Law by Corrupt Spanish Judges

from thefreeonline by Jordi Oriola Folch by Bella Caledonia photos added — – ( on Telegram t.me/thefreeonline)

2017.. Imported Police failed to block the popular Independence Referendum due to the massive turnout.

In order to form a government of PSOE and Sumar (centre and left) and avoid one of PP and VOX (right and extreme right), they made a pact with eight parties, with 179 seats, representing 12.3 million citizens.

Sept 2o17.. A van of the occupying paramilitary police , ‘peacefully’ swamped by the multitude and trapped for half a day.

The Catalan pro-independence supporters, essential to achieve the pact, demanded, as an initial condition, the approval of an amnesty law that would deactivate the judicial repression with which the high judiciary, motivated by its exacerbated Spanish nationalism, has persecuted Catalan nationalists (500 people have convictions or pending trials).

The PSOE, which is also very nationalist and which rejected the amnesty, did a U-turn after the elections and accepted the amnesty in order not to lose the government.

The amnesty law is not being accepted by Spanish nationalism, so we will see how it will be applied, but in reality what would have been fair would have been a process of nullification of the cases, admitting that the Catalan independence supporters had not committed any crime in organising a referendum on self-determination and that the accusations against them were part of the “lawfare” (instrumentalising justice for political ends) used by the state against them.

Then the police officers who improperly attacked the referendum voters could have been tried.

The amnesty, on the other hand, annuls the crimes that are understood to have been committed by both sides, but the fact is that the pro-independence side acted democratically and committed no crime, while the state acted outside the law.

Although the amnesty is unfair to the pro-independence supporters because it attributes crimes to them, what makes Spanish nationalism mad is that, being the strong side, they cannot win and humiliate the weak, as they have always done.

Sept 2017.. 80 vanloads of Franco’s paramilitary Guardia Civil emerged from their HQ in the docks and charged against a total of 93 polling stations… see also Catalan Referendum Wins. 90% YES despite Spanish Police attacks. 844 injured by 8pm

As the state is the strong party, its approval of the amnesty implies that it implicitly accepts that it played dirty with the illegitimate aim of trying to destroy a perfectly legitimate political movement.

The Spanish Congress ensured that the law was unambiguous because it was certain that the judges would try to interpret it in a distorted way against the Catalan pro-independence supporters.

Violence against women, girls in UK at ‘epidemic’ levels- Increased Policing not Working –

Such violence accounted for 20 percent of all reported crime in England and Wales from 2022 to 2023, report says..

from thefreeonline On 27 Jul 202423 by Al Jazeera – (on Telegram:t.me/thefreeonline )

Women hold signs during a protest at Westminster Bridge, following the kidnap and murder of Sarah Everard, in London, Britain March 15, 2021. REUTERS/Hannah McKay

More than 3,000 violent crimes against women and girls take place each day in England and Wales [File: Hannah McKay/Reuters] shared with thanks

“Women and girls in the United Kingdom are suffering “epidemic” levels of violent crime, police warn, with a new report documenting more than 1 million such offences within a year.

“The report, released on Tuesday by the UK’s National Police Chiefs’ Council and the College of Policing, found that violence against women and girls made up about 20 percent of all reported crime in England and Wales from 2022 to 2023.

It said one in every six murders in England and Wales during the period was related to domestic abuse.

Stop Hate UK introduce new Hate Crime Reporting App – OneVision

Based on the data, at least one in every 12 women will be a victim each year of gender-based violent crimes, including rape, stalking, harassment and online sexual abuse, according to the report.

The number is likely to be higher due to unreported crimes, Deputy Chief Constable Maggie Blyth said.

“Femicide, rape, growing misogyny and hate crimes are often linked to toxic masculinity and growing fascism in declining western capitalist States. Regimes that are dependent on neo-colonial financial looting and dedicated only to enriching a small elite. More and More Police is clearly NOT working. – What has sometimes worked is a massive violent community response. To force a change in depraved predator mindsets we need radical social revolutions – With devastating direct action, workplace, health, anti-billionaire campaigns and riots.”

‘National emergency’

“Blyth said the data were “staggering” and growing in scale and complexity every year with violent crimes targeting girls and women increasing 37 percent from 2018 to 2022.

Child sexual abuse and exploitation jumped by 435 percent from 2013 to 2022, the report estimated – from incidents climbing from just over 20,000 to nearly 107,000.

“Violence against women and girls is a national emergency,” Blyth said in a statement. “We need to move forward as a society to make change and no longer accept violence against women and girls as inevitable.”

Britain’s government last year classified violence against women and girls as a national threat to public safety, and police forces were told to prioritise their response to the issue in the same way as they do “terrorism” and organised crime.

“The police report claimed ‘thousands’ of police officers were newly trained to investigate rape and other sexual offences in the past year.

But the scale of the violence is so enormous that law enforcement alone cannot address it, the report said. One in 20 people are estimated to be perpetrators of violence against women and girls per year, with the actual number thought to be significantly higher.

The report cited early data showing a 25 percent increase in the number of arrests from 2019 to 2022.

But Blyth said this response was not enough and called for more government support to tackle a criminal justice system that is “overwhelmed and under-performing for victims”.

“Our focus will always be to bring the men behind these pervasive crimes to justice,” she said. “By enhancing the way we use data and intelligence, we will improve our ability to identify, intercept and arrest those causing the most harm in communities.”

Source: News Agencies