Street vendors clash with police in Palma Beach to prevent arrest
Around 40 street vendors attempted to prevent the detention of a colleague in Palma, prompting the deployment of eleven police patrols.
Commotion in Palma Beach: dozens of street vendors block undercover patrol car
Google News ES — Crime (es) reports a clash between street vendors and the Palma Local Police that occurred on Thursday afternoon on Fita Street, near the boundary with the municipality of Llucmajor.
Shortly after 16:00, plainclothes officers from the police force detained a street vendor at that point on Palma Beach. According to a spokesman for the Local Police, who communicated with the German newspaper Mallorca Zeitung, approximately 40 people immediately gathered and attempted to prevent the detainee from being transported in the undercover police vehicle.
Images from a video obtained by the aforementioned media outlet show several men sitting on the car and gesticulating violently while confronting the officers inside the vehicle, a red saloon which, according to confirmation from the spokesman, was indeed an undercover patrol car of the police force.
Faced with the escalation of the situation, at around 16:20 the officers requested reinforcements. Seven patrols from the Palma Local Police and four from the National Police arrived. With the backing of their colleagues, the plainclothes officers were able to leave the scene and transport the detainee to the police station on Sant Ferran Street in Palma. The officers used batons to disperse the crowd.
According to the video images, some minor scuffles occurred before the gathering dispersed. The incident generated considerable commotion among tourists present in the area. The reason for the street vendor's detention had not initially been clarified.
The spokesman for the Local Police noted that this was not the first time an episode of this nature had occurred. A similar incident took place last July, when stones were even thrown at a patrol car during a similar attempt to obstruct the detention of another vendor.
Source: Google News ES — Crime (es)