A Guardia Civil policeman that demonstrated in Granada in protest against the spending cuts, using a hangman’s noose, is facing criminal charges. The policeman, who was in the reserves at the time of the incident, wore the regulation shirt and the tricorn hat together with normal civilian dress. He is charged with causing criminal public disorder.

The Guardia Civil union, (Asociación Unifacada de Guardias Civiles) issue a communiqué explaining that the policeman had been taking part in a protest in front of the Palacio de Congreso, where a regional party congress was being held by the PP (conservatives). The manifestation was protesting against the drastic spending cuts implemented by the conservative government in Madrid. The accused had been using the noose as as a symbol to show how Spanish citizens were being throttled by the Government’s austerity measures, and in particular, how they were hitting the Guardia Civil.

The police union considers the steps taken against the accused as arbitrary and wrong. It considers that the hardcore sector of the Guardia Civil Corps has misused resources to track down the man photographed in parts of regulation uniform with the noose. In the union’s opinion they had diverted investigative resources from where they supposed to be used; i.e., investigating fraud and robberies. The move, the AUGC considers, was made to gag individual members of the Guardia Civil, this preventing them from being seen to identify themselves with public causes.

The main drive of the Guardia Civil union is to demilitarize the corps, merging its members with the Cuerpo Nacional de Policia, which would produce a huge drop in costs. They point out that in the year 2000, Spain had 16 generals, whereas the country now has 36, who are provided with domestic service free of charge.

(News: Granada, Andalucia – Photo: Noticias Gran Canarias)