Can this really have happened?

"The Attorney General’s office will join the defense of the policemen who illegally arrested two PP members because of their actions at a demonstration in January. The two members were arrested for allegedly assaulting Defense Minister José Bono during the Association of Victims of Terrorism’s (AVT) demonstration, even though none of the policemen present saw the incident. The only evidence used by the police for the detentions was a photograph in which the members were depicted yelling close to the Minister."

"Attorney General to defend illegal detentions of PP members

Conde Pumpido justified his decision by saying that it is his duty to defend any members of the public security forces who “occasionally make complex decisions when investigating a crime.” He said the policemen acted because the photograph showed the arrested PP members “in a hollering attitude, thus making them suspects of having committed a crime.”

They were photographed yelling and they were arrested on suspicion of committing a crime because yelling indicated they were doing something bad????? HUH???? Spanish politics has always been a little confusing but the current political situation has me completely baffled.

This is from The Spain Herald

That happens when a country has a socialist government of socialists who are politically hooked to soviet times.

What has happened is that there was a demonstration where the minister was insulted and shouted. He said he was also kicked and punched.

The police chief ordered to identify demonstrators. The policemen in charge said that the agression could not be proved. Then the police chief ordered to arrest two demonstrators who were PP members, and when policemen argued there were no reason to do so, they were removed from the investigation, the investigation documents were deleted and rewritten by other policemen.

The two PP members were taken from their homes without charges at 6 o'clock in the morning to the police station and imprisoned one night. Without charges...

And when the judge has stated all what I have explained above, the Attorney General, instead of investigating why two politicians were arrested without charges and who gave the order, he says that yelling out in a demonstration is enough to be arrested...

In any serious country both the Defense Minister and the Attorney General would have been ceased inmediately, but here everything is forgiven in committed by a leftist party.

No matter all this, take into account that The Spain Herald is a rightist newspaper that usually support PP tendencies.

Judge yourself...

Fernando

Is this a joke or nonsense?

"a country has a socialist government of socialists who are politically hooked to soviet times"...

Spain?

Sounds more like Franco's days if it happened like that.

JA

Fernando,

As one who has studied the Spanish Civil War, I don't think this is a joke at all. I wish for your country, that enough people will be so enraged by the Socialist, that they won't have a chance in the next election.

Franco a soviet? Fat chance. He had many faults but that wasn't one of them.

When the PSOE was run by F. Gonzalez, did these kind of extreme, odd things happen or is this part of the personality of the new PSOE? I'm really curious about the political friction that is occuring.

Thanx

TJGuy, don't be misled. These kinds of things happen on BOTH sides of the political spectrum - no matter which party is in power but not all of them get published/documented publicly. You can bet that El País will print events wrongly against PSOE and ABC will not. ABC will print events wrongly against PP and El País will not.

If you read only ABC you'd think PSOE was a bunch of raving communist liberals and PP was the greatest things since sliced bread. If you read only El País you'd think PP were a bunch of raving elitest fascists and PSOE was the greatest things since sliced bread. As with most governements and most publications, they (whomever) have an angle, an agenda, a direction, a goal. Keep these things in mind when reading news items or hearing things stated by persons whom follow one political party or another.

Words of wisdom (if you want to believe me, that is - and why should you?? ) from MadridMan

yeah..u r right...you can tell that there is a certain "tone" in ABC's and Spanish Herald reporting. El Pais is a little harder to notice, atleast for me.

When I lived in Spain (during Felipe G.'s time) I didn't notice so much rhetoric but I truley wasn't paying that much attention either. I was just curious if there has always been this much "loud" friction or was it more subdued during the PSOE reign between Franco's death and the PP's electoral victory a few years ago.

For example, was Felipe's PSOE paying as much heed to the regional independence voice as the PSOE of now is or has the regional indepedence voice not been so strong since 1935?

I know it is somewhat of an arcane question but I am a voracious consumer of Spanish political history, especially 20th century political history.

Thanks, guys!!

Gazpach: I think that what Fernando was trying to say was the Soviet style of government, ie. the iron fist, nails in the boots, kill anyone with a different opinion mentallity. You are right Franco was not on good terms with Moscow. I was in Spain at the end of his tenure, and there was no Soviet Embassy, or any other diplomatic relations between the two countries.

MM: I am a little disappointed in you sir. When newspapers such as ABC, Wall Street Journal, any of the Rupert Murdock papers, or Gannett Newspapers print something it is the Gospel sir. One should responde to the writtings of journalist from one of the aformentioned publications as though he had heard it from the burning bush that spoke. Now when rags such as El Pais, Washington Post, New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, print something, it is usually a bunch of left wing, communist BS, and should be read while sitting in the little brown shack out back, so that one can properly utilized said paper at the appropriate time. After all MM, sir you are from the great state of Ohio. The same state that delivered the straw that broke John Kerry's back last November, and delivered the US from his sins and ravages.

Thats all for now sports fans. On the right I am Desert Dweller, on the left is every crybaby in the world.

desert dweller wrote: Spoken like a proud right-winger, sir. :p I too am a bit disappointed in you as well but no one's perfect. I'm not so sure any news company should be described as gospel. One man's gospel is another man's garbage.

Hahahahaaa!!! One man's rags are another man's riches, sir. :p

You be you, sir. I respect your choice. I'll be me. Please respect my choice as well. Errr... lest you might think I don't have that right to practice my own religion and be free of political persecution. Seems to me people came to the America to have those same freedoms. How things change, eh? Widdle that USA constitution down to the bare minimum, why don't we?

I return to my ealier point that one side accuses the other and the other doesn't report the same. Then something else happens and that side accuses the other side and that other side doesn't report the same. The media, as a whole, is DEEPLY flawed. There are no gods in journalism. No one is perfect. And no news agency speaks the gospel - that's for sure.

Saludos, MadridMan

MM: It is that balance of garbage from both sides is what keeps things interesting, and our country wonderful.