Bolton complain over Spain police

Bolton Wanderers have made an official complaint about “overzealous and disproportionate” treatment of their supporters by Spanish police.

I have every sympathy with the Bolton fans.
The Spanish Police have a reputation for unprovoked brutality and a complete lack of restraint.

I remember an incident in the NOU Camp in Barcelona.

The Spanish police had failed to remove one or two spectators who just got a little over excited as Rangers were about to win their first European Trophy.  Then the referee blew the whistle for a free kick. The Rangers fans thought it was the final whistle and started to celebrate and the police stood and watched when first just a few fans came on to the pitch and as the fans realized that the police were doing absolutely nothing to discourage them more and more began to run on to the pitch.

Of course, the chaos started when the police finally realized they were there to keep the fans off the pitch and had to clear the pitch.  Batons were drawn, even guns were drawn.  They set in about the celebrating supporters with a vengeance.  The pitch was cleared, all except for one fan that had a little too much to drink.  He was making his way off the pitch as fast as his condition would let him.

Six Spanish police, each wielding a 3ft long wooden baton, went after him.  They caught up with him, knocked him to the ground and then started beating him with their batons whilst he lay helpless on the ground.  The Rangers fans do have a real sense of justice and they were not going to stand for that kind of treatment and returned to the pitch to rescue the helpless supporter.

After the match, the Spanish police went round in packs, like today’s street gangs, looking for anyone wearing Rangers colours.  If they found you, you took a beating. Back at the airport, the place was littered with beaten and bloodied bodies of Ranger’s supporters waiting for their flights home.  The violence of the Spanish police barely got a mention in the newspapers or the television.

The establishment closed ranks, Rangers fans were vilified and no one took any notice of the behaviour of the Spanish police.  Except the Spanish people, they said that no one had actually ever stood up to their police like that before and secretly admired the fact the, at last, someone had stood up to them.

The Spanish police have been doing this for years, but as is always the case, the government and establishment figures can and do get away with murder.