The vote was meaningless and peaceful. They weren’t violently attacking anyone. And it didn’t have any legal standing. It was a total overreaction from the authorities.
No. It was an attempted coup. No different from the March on Rome. Except this was unsuccessful.
Where was the violence by those who voted?
I'm not sure I follow your logic. If someone breaks into my house peacefully, peacefully steals my car keys and peacefully drives away with my car, are you saying no crime has been committed?
The Catalan Nationalists have played a blinder, I'll give you that. They've attempted a coup, failed,and now have people falling over themselves supporting the revolutionaries over the elected Government of Spain. It's quite incredible. ISIS will be thinking all they have to do is put down their weapons and these Western apologists will support them in setting up their illegal, minority led regimes.
The Scottish Nationalists could peacefully declare Independence in Scotland tomorrow - it wouldn't make it any less of a coup.
Fail at the first hurdle. Breaking into a house is an act of violence.
If someone breaks in peacefully and uses nor threatens no violence against you, then no judge will be impressed if you use disproportionate force to contain them.
That doesn’t change that the act of breaking in was illegal, it is about your response to it. And that is exactly the problem I have with Madrid and their Police force. The force used was excessive and unnecessary.
I concede the violence doesn't look good from what little impartial evidence I've seen, but I'd be tempted to reserve judgement until there's been some kind of independent (non-Spanish) inquiry. If indeed there ever is one.
You'll wait a very long time for one from the EU.
Thank you.
There was no need for intervention by federal and national police. This wasn’t a military coup with tanks in the streets. They could have simply let them do their illegal yet peaceful vote, and on the quiet picked up the leaders afterwards.
And then execute them data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7