The nightmare of living in the La Florida neighborhood of L’Hospitalet: “We suffer robberies, assaults and death threats on a daily basis”

80 residents of the La Florida neighborhood of L’Hospitalet de Llobregat have spent many sleepless nights. Insecurity and incivility have taken over the streets of the city. Every day they suffer robberies, death threats and attacks by a group of squatters who have taken over the neighborhood. “It has always been a conflictive neighborhood, but since the pandemic and with the arrival of these people, insecurity has increased. They are a group of about 12 people who come from Romania and Bulgaria and live between a flat they own, a shack and a flat that they have squatted. They dedicate themselves to shouting, making noise, generating dirt… But they also threaten people. They fight, they try to kill each other. We have seen them with knives, throwing glass bottles at each other and leaving traces of blood. There are also drug deals. They buy drugs in the neighborhood,” explains Marc, one of the affected neighbors. Threats of death and aggression They assure that 80% of the time the police do not come when they are called. “Every day we call the Guardia Urbana between five and six times but most of the time they don’t come. We have had meetings with the town hall, but they always tell us that the priority is to deal with incidences of gender-based violence and they don’t have sufficient means. The only solution that the council gives us is that over time these people will integrate,” adds Marc. Shack where the group of conflictive niusdiario supposedly lives. However, they regret that they and their families are the ones who have to endure all kinds of Totally surreal situations. “We older people are the most vulnerable, many of us must take anxiolytics to be able to sleep. The children who play in the two playgrounds on the Avenue and watch the fights are also suffering, and one of the women even gave drugs to a 10-year-old boy. The neighbors also suffer because they have to get up in the morning to go to work without having slept”, explains Josep. Another neighbor was punched after asking them to stop fighting in front of the playground because their daughter is afraid to go out on the street. They feel completely unprotected and insist that the problem is not just the dirt and the yelling, but also the aggression they must endure. every time they confront the squatters to reproach them for their actions. “Some dedicate themselves to pissing and shitting wherever they can. One was even seen masturbating outdoors. The most famous, Anita, has the entire neighborhood threatened with death,” explains the man. “We are frightened. They tried to rob my mother the other day. They threatened to rape a 76-year-old neighbor, they stole her cell phone and they tried to steal her dog. They left a knife as a threat in my neighbor’s mailbox. Another neighbor suffered a punch after asking them to stop fighting in front of the playground because his daughter is afraid to go out on the street. All the surrounding communities have suffered damage to the portal door even within the communities since they urinate inside. And when we call the police, we tell them something or they threaten us or they will tell us glass bottles at the front of our house”, they denounce. Coordinated neighborhood movement With the aim of putting an end to this situation, those affected in the neighborhood have organized themselves into a kind of neighborhood movement and have created a WhatsApp group where they coordinate to call the Urban Guard several at a time when they detect an incident ” because if they don’t they won’t come”. “We are organizing a protest. We feel abandoned by the city council. We all agree on the feeling of neglect in the neighborhood,” they say. Children’s playground in the neighborhoodniusdiario.esIn fact, complaints about the lack of security and incivility in the city are increasingly recurrent. According to the latest municipal barometer, the feeling of insecurity in the neighborhoods of L’Hospitalet has skyrocketed. Currently 41.7% of residents consider insecurity the main problem, while in 2017 it was considered by 20%. However, the number of infractions registered by the Ministry of the Interior maintains similar figures. In 2017, a total of 15,649 crimes were registered, while in 2021 the final balance was 15,239 infractions, that is, 410 less than five years ago.