Posted on 10/07/2014 12:06:59 PM PDT by 11th_VA
The Spanish government is readying itself for an autumn of discontent, spending nearly €1m on riot gear for police units as disparate protest groups prepare a string of demonstrations.
Since June, the interior ministry has tendered four contracts to purchase riot equipment ranging from shields to stab vests. The ministry also finalised its purchase of a new truck-mounted water cannon, an anti-riot measure used during Spain's dictatorship and the transition to democracy but little seen in recent years. Despite attempts by opposition Socialist politician Antonio Trevín to paint the purchase as "a return to times that we would rather forget", the ministry said in its tender that the water cannon was necessary, "given the current social dynamic".
Rallies are being planned to counter draft laws by the governing People's party that would curtail access to abortion in Spain or see unauthorised protests levied fines of up to €600,000. Months after former King Juan Carlos abdicated the throne in favour of his son King Felipe VI, protests are also being planned to demand a referendum on the monarchy. In Catalonia, the push continues for a vote on independence, while the Canary Islands has said it wants to put the idea of oil exploration in the waters around the region to a referendum.
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
What it is ain't exactly clear
It’s the Catalan secessionist movement, heavily supported by Spain’s adorable radical leftists and anarchists (you know, the same people who provoked the Spanish Civil War).
That said, 1 million euro for an entire country is not really a huge expenditure.
Gee. I wonder if Homeland Security had a surplus sale?
Well, can't be too bad... if it was REALLY bad, the Spanish govt would have done a great deal more than this. They might have, say, bought up millions of rounds of hollow point bullets, just for example.
That’s silly—who would do THAT!?
Nobody really.... Spain need not worry. Unless the somehow put a marxist islamist in power.
What a silly thing to speculate about, even hypothetically, you know?
Even hypothetically.
I mean, next thing you know, you’ll be carrying on about MRAPs and batcaves under the WH, etc.
Yeah, but what kind of mouthbreathing morons would put someone like THAT in power? I mean, come ON. Never happen.
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