Mayhem in Madrid

The death of a Senegalese street vendor last week caused a riot in Madrid. Mame Mbaye allegedly died of a heart attack while fleeing police. Rioting culture-enrichers and their allies caused mayhem in the capital, injuring ten police officers.

Many thanks to FouseSquawk for translating this Spanish news report, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:

Below is an article about the same incident:

Six Arrested in Madrid Protest Over Migrant Death

Spanish authorities arrested six people during a violent protest in Madrid over the death of a Senegalese street vendor, police said Friday, adding 10 officers were injured.

The clashes on Thursday evening in Lavapies, a district in the centre of the Spanish capital with a large immigrant population, saw angry protesters set fire to dustbins and motorbikes, and throw stones at riot police.

A police spokesman said six Spanish people had been arrested, including a minor and a woman.

He added 10 police officers were injured in the unrest, while emergency services said four people were slightly hurt in the protest.

Demonstrators at the time told AFP they were protesting in support of Mame Mbaye.

Mbaye was a street vendor in his mid-thirties from Senegal, who arrived in Spain by boat 12 years ago.

Video transcript:

00:02   Disturbances continue in the neighborhood of Lavapies.
00:07   The Senegalese Consul has turned up in the area,
00:12   and is forced to take refuge in one of the bars
00:16   to escape the ire of the protesters.
00:23   They accuse him of becoming involved too late
00:26   in the case of the dead Senegalese man.
00:38   The protesters reproached him across from the entrance
00:43   and threw rocks and chairs at the police.
00:53   Finally he is able to be evacuated in a police van.
 

Hat tip for the article: Fjordman.

8 thoughts on “Mayhem in Madrid

  1. Mame Mbaye …. running from the police and had a heart attack. If true, well, these things happen. Why was he running from the police? Perhaps he was trying to avoid being arrested for having committed – or being suspected of having committed – a crime. And the police are to blame for that? Really?

    Must be nice these days for the other residents of Lavapies (“Wash your Feet”). Anyway, the neighbourhood’s been really enriched … African food and music, the newcomers quietly conversing while they browse the newspapers, play dominoes or enjoy a glass of Rioja.

    And I’m sure those who’ve “lived in Lavapies for a bit longer” were asked how they felt about becoming Little Africa.

    From “El Pais”: ‘Residents’ associations and anti-racist groups say that harassment of immigrants in a neighborhood with 32.5 percent foreign residents – double the average in the capital – has caused a siege mentality. “They chase us: they come into shops and restaurants to get us,” says Dauda Thiam, a Senegalese without documentation. “One day they took me to the station when I went out to buy bread.”

    Sr. Thiam is undocumented yet complains about being taken to a police station.

    Alfonso José Fernández, Madrid’s new chief of police, says that ……….. “The situation in Lavapiés is worrying,” he says. “It’s not acceptable that when crimes are committed that require a police presence some elements block their way. We are looking for criminals and drug dealers without regard to race, and no group has the authority to oppose it.”
    Sounds reasonable.

    “It is a disgrace that during these disturbances you see a known drug dealer shouting at the police to leave the neighborhood,” says Manuel Osuna, president of the residents’ association in the La Corrala area. Indeed it is.

    “It’s not right that a group of people set themselves up as spokespeople for the neighborhood saying whether the police can come in or not. There is no discussion here. The police are needed.”

    The opinion of local businesses follows a similar line, from Alicia and Juan José, whose newsagency was held up by someone wielding a baseball bat, to Back Sene, secretary of the Association of Senegalese Immigrants in Madrid. “The situation is spiraling out of our hands. Of course we do not want xenophobic policing but if it is a matter of drugs or citizens’ security we cannot protect the guilty,” says Sene.

    https://elpais.com/elpais/2012/04/02/inenglish/1333372689_699914.html

  2. Am in Spain for our annual visit with son, his Spanish wife and our two grandchildren.

    In every large Spanish city there are black street vendors (and others – Romanians) who sell knockoff designer purses, illegally copied first run movies, music CD’s released in States but not here, etc. Selling on the street is illegal without specific license, so these guys have a blanket with grommets around the edge and ropes fashioned so that they can pull on a knot cinching the entire “store” into a swag bag which they throw over their shoulder as they run from the police. Have seen this several times. These vendors predominate at various railway stations and high traffic corners.

    • This is purely anecdotal, but last October I was in Seville and had my shoulder bag stolen. Got a replacement from a street vendor from Sierra Leone; he was pleasant and open, and we had a conversation about his country’s (British) colonial history and the recent (successful) UK intervention in the civil war there.

  3. Baron,

    The man was not fleeing the police, according to witnesses and the local police. According to media reports he had some sort of cardiopathy.

    The real scandal here is that councilmen and women of the Madrid city hall, controlled by the anarchists of Podemos thanks to the support from the socialists, tweeted claims of police brutality even though their own police reported the facts since the beginning.

    The councilman responsible for the local police then went on the record acknowledging the facts reported by his own police force: the officers in fact spent 30 min performing CPR on the illegal migrant who had collapsed while walking in the street.

    An illegal migrant who had spent 12 years in Spain selling, unhindered, counterfeit handbags, perfumes, sneakers, sunglasses, and other items. This type of street commerce is called “manteros” or “top manta” because they sell their goods – including counterfeit CDs of “top hits” on a “blanket” or rather, piece of cloth, craftily attached to a cord in each corner so one can instantly flee with the merchandise if the police are nearby.

    But you see, despite being nearby the police rarely intervene. Obviously, the sight of a nearby cop might trigger a precipitous flight to avoid confiscation of the inventory. What a terribke thing to do! How dare the police enforce the law against counterfeit! – a crime that costs the economy and the State billions in lost jobs and tax revenue.

    So when the municipal government acknowledged the facts and finally displayed some loyalty to their own police, they claimed that the infortunate illegal migrant who had made his living unhindered for 12 years in Spain, who had enjoyed public health and other social benefits not even many Americans enjoy, had died owing to his victimhood to the “global capitalist system”. Check it out in the media, it’s there to see.

    But there’s more!

    Then the Podemos anarchists, who hold 71 seats in the Spanish national parliament, presented a bill to decriminalize selling counterfeit goods under €400.

  4. Of course we do not want xenophobic policing but if it is a matter of drugs or citizens’ security we cannot protect the guilty,” says Sene.

    What is xenophobic policing? That which favours ethnic Spanish? Why not?

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