"Three police officers were beating a friend at the same time, and when I went to help him, they beat me up"

PalmaThe demonstration that this Sunday ran through the center of Palma ended with moments of tension and charges by the National Police at the entrances to Les Voltes, after more than two hours of mobilization without incidents. Several people were injured by baton blows during the police intervention, which occurred when hundreds of demonstrators demanded to be able to access the final point of the route, where the manifesto was being read.

According to the version provided by the National Police, access to Les Voltes was restricted because the venue had reached its capacity limit. However, several attendees assure that there was still space available and question the decision to block entry.

The tension concentrated between the wall and the Hort del Rei, where agents established two police cordons to prevent access. For several minutes, the protesters heckled the police to let them complete the route, but the situation remained limited to exchanges of shouts and protests.

"The situation became tense because people wanted to reach the end of the demonstration"

J.G. is one of the attendees who witnessed how the events unfolded, as he was one of the first to arrive at Les Voltes and took an active part in taking photographs and videos.

He assures that when he accessed it, the venue was far from full. "When I entered, there couldn't have been more than 600 people. It continued to fill up afterwards, but I don't think there were more than 1,500 or 2,000 people. I've seen events with many more people in that same space," he explains.

According to his account, the tension began when the officers prevented both the entry and exit of people. "People didn't understand why access was being closed and started to protest. I recorded several videos and, while I was there, I didn't see any aggression from either the protesters or the police. Only discussions because they weren't letting people pass".

J.G. describes that the agents partially opened the cordon at times and closed it again, which caused pushes and some people opted to overcome the wall to access the Vaults. "The situation became tense because people wanted to reach the end of the demonstration, but what I saw were mainly verbal protests".

"They started to beat my friend, three of them"

Among the injured, who prefers to remain anonymous, is a young man who claims he received several baton blows when he tried to help a friend. "I was at the front. People were asking the Police to let us out because they had blocked our way.

At one point an officer fired into the air, people started to reproach him for the shot and that's when they started to charge," he recounts. As he explains, "they knocked a friend to the ground and three police officers started hitting him. My girlfriend and I went to help him and that's when they started hitting us".

The young man claims that, after trying to move away, he still received more impacts to his back. "I went towards the stairs and two people saw that I was bleeding. They took me to an assistance point". The consequences of the intervention were two head wounds and a bruised elbow. "They put four stitches and two stitches on me". In his assessment, he maintains that the demonstration had been "totally peaceful" until access to the Arches was restricted. "If they wanted to avoid disturbances, it was as simple as letting people in or taking them elsewhere, allowing the manifesto to be read and removing the police presence when the gathering ended".

Another injured person remains admitted with a skull fracture

Among the hospitalized people is also A.A.V., who claims to have been injured while trying to protect another protester. "I was almost on the front line and I saw three police officers trying to beat a comrade at the same time. I went to help him and ended up getting hit myself," he explains from the hospital. The injured person states that the demonstration had proceeded normally until the final incidents.

"I was there for a good while and I didn't see any fights. There were children, parents, and grandparents. The tensions began when the National Police arrived." The protester assures that doctors have diagnosed him with a fractured skull, in addition to several wounds that required stitches. "I still don't know the exact extent of the trauma, but I have been admitted since yesterday." According to his account, "there were people angrier than others, but I didn't have the perception that the protesters wanted to provoke a violent situation." In his opinion, "the charges served to divide the demonstration" and the police response was disproportionate.

Healthcare amidst the chaos

The consulted witness also describes moments of confusion after the first charges. He explains that, together with other people – including several healthcare professionals who were participating with him in the demonstration – he helped attend to several injured people until the ambulances arrived.

In this regard, he explains that the photojournalist who suffered a serious head injury was stabilized on the spot before being transferred. He also assures that he saw at least five injured people, two of them with more serious head injuries. The same witness states that the ambulances were surrounded by a police presence for more than an hour before they could leave the area, a circumstance about which he says the attendees received no official explanation.

For his part, the regional senator Vicenç Vidal went to the place where the ambulance with the injured people was located to try to mediate with the officers so that it could leave for the hospital and the situation would calm down.

It should be noted that police protocols establish that blows should be avoided in vulnerable areas such as the head, except in exceptional situations where it is essential to confront a serious threat. In fact, some of the injured protesters are considering reporting police action that they consider absolutely disproportionate.