Spain has been gripped violence, with anti-lockdown protesters clashing with police in multiple cities, including Madrid and Barcelona, over the state and regional governments’ move to toughen Covid-19 restrictions.
Protesters torched garbage containers and erected makeshift barricades on Gran Vía, and reportedly smashed several store fronts elsewhere in central Madrid on Saturday night.
BREAKING 🚨 Gran Via, #Madrid - lawlessness as protestors are on street clashing with police after they follow to be #Spain’s lockdown rules.
When police moved in to clear the unruly gathering, they were pelted with stones and flares, and reportedly fired blank bullets forcing the protesters to disperse into nearby streets.
Meanwhile in Barcelona, police officers were once pelted with stones and other projectiles, as they tried to disperse a smaller-scale anti-lockdown protests for the second consecutive night.
Aaand the second day of rioting and police activity in Barcelona. Not as bad as yesterday. pic.twitter.com/MhxRQy9v3C
The regional government of Catalonia approved a new package of measures this week, including the perimeter confinement of each municipality, limiting people to their own district on weekends.
Spain's prime minister Pedro Sanchez urged Spaniards, in a Saturday night tweet, to show patience and demonstrate “responsibility, unity and sacrifice” to defeat the global pandemic, while condemning the “violent and irrational behavior” by a “small minority” of the population.
Disturbios y enfrentamientos entre la Policía Nacional y manifestantes en la Gran Vía de Madrid, a pocos minutos de entrar en vigor el toque de queda impuesto por el gobierno de España. Decenas de personas protestan contra las restricciones #31octpic.twitter.com/Aqa8ed6Rdm
Spain's parliament approved a six-month extension to the national state of emergency last week , granting regional authorities more power to tackle the country's second wave of Covid-19. This is Spain's third extension to the state of emergency during the pandemic and will be in force until May 9, but with the option for it to be lifted on March 9.
Under this new extension, regional governments have the power to control freedom of movement and curfew times without having to go through complicated fortnightly procedures in parliament. Since then, many regions have toughened their coronavirus measures, with nighttime curfews, lockdowns and travel restrictions.
What role disinformation may play in the 2020 Michigan elections isn't yet clear, and in the four years since the last presidential election, questions still linger about how social media changes what happens in the voting booth.
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October 31, 2020 at 06:37AM
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A large pro-Trump demonstration in Beverly Hills turned violent as a group of black-clad counter-protesters harassed a man holding an American flag, punching, kicking and beating him with a metal pole, forcing police to intervene.
The incident apparently began when a person wearing a helmet with ACAB painted on the side trying to take the flag from one of the Trump supporters, according to a video posted on Twitter by photographer Shane Murphy. Ironically, although the man was beaten and kicked by at least half a dozen counter-protestors, police had to pull him off one of the assailants after dispersing the other attackers.
#BeverlyHill
What proceeded the attack:
A group in tactical vests harass this man and a person with ‘ACAB’ on a motorcycle helmet tries to steal his flag. He is then attacked. pic.twitter.com/6AHuiS0KtX
The overall scale of the pro-Trump rally on Saturday could be seen with an aerial view shared by Beverly Hills Courier reporter Samuel Braslow. Some of the demonstrators showed up three hours early, and the crowd spilled onto Santa Monica Boulevard as it grew, Braslow said. Beverly Hills police directed a line of traffic through an open lane in the crowd at one point.
Police then closed off the street to traffic. When counter-protesters arrived, police in riot gear formed a line blocking them. Once violence flared, police declared the counter-protest an unlawful assembly.
The counter-protesters moved a line of temporary fence sections in front of the line of police but apparently walked back toward Roxbury Park once officers moved toward them.
Video footage out of Texas shows a convoy of pickup trucks and other vehicles bearing Trump flags and surrounding a Biden-Harris campaign bus, which Democrats called a dangerous harassment effort.
At one point, a black pickup is shown pushing a white sport-utility vehicle that was straddling two lanes out from behind the bus. Eric Cervini, an author who said he traveled to Texas to participate in a driving tour in support of Joe Biden's presidential campaign, said trucks lined up along Interstate 35 between San Antonio and Austin Friday to “ambush” the Biden-Harris bus, which they surrounded and tried to force off the road.
This is violence, hitting people with cars is violence. All Republicans need to denounce this political violence
— Alex “Test, Trace, Isolate” Lawson (@alaw202) October 31, 2020
The bus tour involved a group of Texas Democrats and was meant to “drum up enthusiasm” at polling sites. Cervini said the tour had to be canceled for safety reasons. He said he flagged down a police officer, who declined to help, saying the matter was not his “jurisdiction.”
I flew down to Texas to help with the Biden/Harris bus tour, intended to drum up enthusiasm at polling locations. Instead, I ended up spending the afternoon calling 911. 1/ pic.twitter.com/gKAjv7gv85
Video shot from another angle shows a different view of the convoy with more than a dozen trucks escorting the Democrat bus up the highway. A blogger who goes by the Twitter account name “L” called the long line of trucks “the most badass thing I've ever seen in my life.”
Democrat state Representative Rafael Anchia called the group “armed Trump trolls” and accused them of “ramming volunteer vehicles and blocking traffic for 40 minutes.” Travis County Democratic Party Chairwoman Katie Naranjo said the Trump supporters followed the Biden bus throughout central Texas and yelled curse words and threats.
This is a 1st for me - but we just cancelled a joint event in Pflugerville w/ @JoeBiden campaign, @AustinYoungDems, & more, due to security reasons. Unfortunately, Pro-Trump Protestors have escalated well beyond safe limits. Sorry to all who looked forward to this fun event. https://t.co/tSq4moqro0
Another video posted of the convoy indicated that there were about 100 vehicles in the pro-Trump group. A video by Austin television reporter Jordan Bontke purports to show Trump supporters getting in their trucks to follow the Biden-Harris bus.
A joint event that the Biden campaign and a group called Austin Young Dems planned to hold Friday in Pflugerville, north of Austin, had to be canceled for security reasons, Democrat state Representative Sheryl Cole said. “Unfortunately, pro-Trump protestors have escalated well beyond safe limits,” she added.
As the Biden bus rolled down 11th street toward I-35, Trump supporters scrambled to their trucks to follow it. @cbsaustinpic.twitter.com/idnbDqFU3L
Unruly Trump supporters have been a thorn in the side of the Biden campaign this week. As Biden tried to deliver a speech Friday at a drive-in rally in Minnesota, Trump backers honked their horns, prompting the Democrat candidate to call them “ugly folks.”
