The use of rubber balls by the Police, the main obstacle to reforming the ‘gag law’ before the end of the year

The working group made up of the government parties and their usual parliamentary partners have resumed contacts to try to reach an agreement on the reform of the Citizen Security Law approved by the PP Government, known by its detractors as the ‘gag law’ , some negotiations that continue to present as the main stumbling block the elimination of the use of rubber balls within the riot gear of the Police. According to what parliamentary sources inform Europa Press, the negotiations are still limited to the exchange of proposals between the Government parties, PSOE and United We Can, and their main parliamentary partners. The idea is to try to seal an agreement on the amendments first between partners and then reconvene the conference, in which all the groups with parliamentary representation are part. The most optimistic speak of the possibility of meeting the conference in the coming weeks, perhaps in October, but there are formations that see it as very complicated and predict that there may not be an agreement, if it is finally reached, until the end of the year.Interior buys 60,000 ballsAmong the partners of the Government, the decision has fallen this week like a jug of cold water of the Ministry of the Interior to buy some 60,000 rubber balls to replenish stocks in the police intervention units, known as ‘riot police’. From ERC, they have stressed that this does not help the negotiations and, like EH Bildu and Más País, they have questioned the decision by referring to reports from human rights organizations that report the “extreme seriousness” that its use entails due to the injuries that it can cause. The partners of the Executive press to close the reform of the ‘gag law’, a legislature commitment sealed by Pedro Sánchez and Pablo Iglesias in December 2019. From United We Can, the co-spokesman Javier Sánchez Serna described a month ago as “shame” that the rule will take longer in force with the socialist government than with the PP, which carried out the law in 2015 thanks to its absolute majority. No progress before the summer On paper, the situation is as it was before the summer due to the lack of significant progress during the holiday period. The groups have already closed in the presentation the new text of 29 articles –out of 54– of the future Citizen Security Law, to which are added another twelve already agreed upon. However, around half of the latter have not yet finalized the new wording. The partners of the Executive are working with the objective that the new text of the law be raised to the presentation and then to the Interior Commission before Christmas . EH Bildu sources do not rule out that the commission can be convened in October, although they warn that eliminating the rubber balls is a “red line” to support the reform. ERC also insists on this point, who also demands that it be modified the matter related to the “lack of respect” towards agents of the Security Forces, the one related to disobedience that, they underline, is already in the Penal Code and also the one of the responsibility of the conveners of demonstrations in which altercations take place . In his opinion, it will be necessary to punish those who, for example, burn containers, but not those who organize the protest. United We Can recognize that there are still obstacles, mainly in the use of riot gear used by the Police Intervention Unit (UIP) , something that in the past has already been the subject of controversy: in 2014, for example, the PP government maintained, following complaints from the Ombudsman, that rubber balls were limited “only to extreme and duly justified cases”. ERC and EH Bildu exert greater pressure on this point for the total and immediate elimination of rubber balls, taking as a reference that in Catalonia the Mossos d’Esquadra already have a material known as foam, considered a priori less harmful, although also questioned by some social groups after the injuries in the protests against the imprisonment of Pablo Hasel.Unidas Podemos, for its part, supports allowing the use of rubber balls, although it understands that it must be more flexible in terms and open a transition period until its total elimination. The purple party also seeks to reformulate the current weight of the veracity of the police in the minutes with proposals for sanctions, for which the new rule wants require that the account of events be “coherent, logical and reasonable, unless there is evidence to the contrary.” the lack of judicial supervision. Returns or body searches Other issues such as completely eliminating the hot returns of migrants were agreed to be regulated in the Immigration Law, removing it from the ‘gag law’. There is also a majority agreement to modify article 20, which regulates body searches to “reduce nudity to a minimum” and prevent it from being carried out on public roads. The intention of the parties that govern in coalition is to “increase the guarantees ” in police actions, as is the case with the amendment to article 22 on video camera recordings on public roads. From now on it is intended that these recordings –for example in a demonstration that leads to altercations– be reflected in reports, leaving all the material available to the court if required. The police unions demonstrated in Madrid to express their doubts — although some have clarified in recent weeks their outright rejection in view of the course of the negotiations– on the formula chosen for identifications with retentions of a maximum of two hours, except for justified exceptions, and the obligation to transfer the affected person to the place of origin in the case of having changed locality. On January 19, the paper closed an agreement to regulate controls on public roads to link them to cases of serious and effective alteration of citizen security or in cases of prevention of serious crimes, limiting the duration time to the essential minimum.