"I didn’t realise they were Guardia Civil; one hit me in the face and the others in the ribs and kidneys"

"I was just leaving home, on my way to visit my mother. There were four men and two women, and I saw them taking down an estelada [the Catalan independence flag] that had been on the ground floor of a building in Barcelona’s carrer Alcanar for years", declared the 41-year-old man who had a run-in with a group of Spanish Guardia Civil officers last Saturday evening in Barcelona. "They weren’t in uniform and at no time did they say they were police officers", he continued. "I only found out later, when it was all over". He was taken away in an ambulance before he could make a full statement of what had happened —he filed a complaint the following day—, which may explain why the Catalan police patrol only reported one of the assailants. The man’s medical report states that he was suffering from "multiple bruises as a result of a physical assault", although one of the police officers claims that the man in fact attacked him.

When the man admonished the plainclothes police officers for pulling down the flag, they replied: "You’d better get lost, you haven’t seen a thing." They appeared to be drunk, he says. According to the man, he persisted, telling them he would call the police and while he was doing so, they proceeded to attack him. "At least three of them attacked me while my call was being transferred from the emergency number to the police" he declared. "One sat on top of me and punched me in the face while the others kicked me in the ribs, the kidneys and my back, I had to curl up into a ball to protect myself," he says. According to the medical report, when the man arrived at Hospital del Mar he had lacerations on his scalp, cheeks and forearms; bruising to one eye, his nose, and a finger on his right hand, and a swollen finger on the same hand. He works at a sports centre in La Barceloneta, though he is still on sick leave from his injuries.

According to the Barcelona resident, who prefers to remain anonymous, he was rescued by a black man, who came to his aid by pulling the police officers off of him and helping him to his feet. The man’s mobile phone had slipped underneath a rubbish skip, but that didn’t stop him: the man retrieved it and called 112 again. He went after the individual who had pulled down the flag, the same one that had sat on top of him during the assault, who had left with the two female officers, while the other three police officers went off down another street. He claims that while he was following them he was on the phone to the Catalan police, telling them where they were headed so they could detain them, and that the Spanish policeman with the flag came back and started to threaten him.

The man claims that he asked some passers-by to look after his mobile phone while he confronted the plainclothes policeman, who attacked him again. He subsequently left, which was when the Catalan police patrol arrived in Balboa Street to investigate the incident. According to a police spokesperson, the man pointed out the Spanish officer to them but when they asked him for identification he initially refused, before trying to run away and insulting them. As a result, they charged him for failing to cooperate with the police and for abusive language. Meanwhile, the Guardia Civil officer has brought charges against the Barcelona resident for aggression, claiming that he attacked him for being a policeman. The owner of the flag has also reported the fact that it was taken down. In addition to the legal process, the Guardia Civil force has begun an internal inquiry into the events.