Hate case

Elx 2019: Linguistic discrimination

28.08.2024  |  Spain  |  Submitted by: Plataforma per la Llengua

Country                                                Catalunya, Spain              

Year                                                       2022

Affected group/minority              Jafet Pinedo, Catalan-speakers

Perpetrator                                       National Police

Type of case                                       Hate act

Type of act                                          Detention of a person

Media:                                                  Physical interaction

Reactions:                                           Platform for Language has provided legal assistance to the victim

 

Brief description:            

When a home delivery driver was cycling through Elx (Valencia), he was forced to overtake two cars occupying the bike lane. He reprimanded the drivers for their attitude, ironically saying, "You're in the right place!".

A few meters further, he was stopped by one of the vehicles, from which two men identified as national police officers got out. The rider, not having an ID on him, was arrested and taken, with insults, to the National Police station. There, the agents denounced him for refusing to identify himself by not bringing the documentation - despite verbally communicating his ID number -"laughing at the agents" and "speaking in Valencian when the agents were asking him to speak in Spanish".      

The Platform for Language has provided legal assistance to the victim, Jafet Pinedo, who denounced the officers for abuse of power, wrongful arrest, verbal assaults and false accusation. The NGO has also requested an interview with the deputy delegate of the central government in Alicante, M. Araceli Poblador, to ask her to suspend the police fine against Pinedo, which continues the administrative process.

 

More information on the case can be obtained from:

https://www.plataforma-llengua.cat/que-fem/noticies/4450/dos-policies-espanyols-reconeixen-excesde-zel-i-es-disculpen-per-una-discriminacio-linguistica-a-un-rider-delx 

https://www.plataforma-llengua.cat/que-fem/noticies/4425/la-policia-nacional-aplica-la-llei-mordassa-a-un-rider-per-adrecar-shi-en-valencia

 

Photo

Alejandro Lopez @ Unsplash.com

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