This reminds me of Franco`s Moorish brigade-- they were tough motherfuckers. They struck fear in the hearts of the Reds of the North.
Early last week videos appeared of hundreds of people in the south of Spain seeing off police cars leaving for Catalonia to help the central government, shouting “Go get them!”
I’m trying to picture Barcelona as an enigmatic mountain village with an unintelligible language and sociopolitical system.
Trying to make an analogy about separatist movements in different countries can be very problematic.
Have you ever tried explaining Quebec to a Chinese who thinks it’s the same as Tibet or Taiwan? It doesn’t even matter which side of the debate you’re on as far as Quebec itself is concerned. The fact that you’re disagreeing about it being the same as something in a faraway country with a radically different history means you’re wrong, because that’s how they’ve been trained to think. (Obviously not all Chinese are like that, but it’s what the education system has set them up for.)
I hope we Forumosans are all smart enough to avoid falling into mental traps like that.
As Jesus has mentioned, European football fans are extremely crazy and probably make a worse scene on the street if their home team loses.
So, all those so-called violence and brutality aren’t exactly issues for them.
What I was trying to say is that after a football cellebration, the police wants people to go home. There are always a few violent fans or just people who won’t move, and the confrontation with the police starts. The riot police then does exactly the same or much worse things than what you have seen in the pictures of last Sunday. They are paid to get people move out, and after asking people to do so with polite words, then they use other means.
That’s what I mean. Police officers are just doing their job. They don’t care if the crowd in front of them are crazy Real Madrid fans or Catalan striving independence. They will do the exact same thing if they get the same order from their superior officers.
So, a police officer pushes a Real Madrid fan back = a police officer pushes a Catalan back. It’s the same thing.
But, no one will pay much attention to the former, while everyone condemns the latter.
It’s the magic of politics, I guess.