Harassed. This is how a family in Madrid has felt for days protesting against the government’s management in the caceroladas of Madrid’s Paseo de la Habana. The Spanish flag with the motto ‘Government resignation ’ that during the protests carry Maria del Prado and his family is already well recognizable every afternoon. They denounce that from the first day they are closely watched by the Police and that they have even asked them for the documentation on several occasions. “The agents carry out orders from above, someone has bothered the image of our flag », assures OKDIARIO.
The Del Prado family lives in an area close to Havana promenade, a street that in the last week has become one of the epicenters of protests taking place throughout the capital against the management of the coronavirus crisis. Both she and her family participate in these marches, and from the second day they do so from a significant position: it is they who carry a great flag of Spain, with a mast on each side, in which you can clearly read ‘Government resignation’. An icon of the protests at this point in Madrid.
«I went down the first day with the saucepan, and the second day I went down with the flag so that it was clear what we were asking for. We did not want to go to phase 1, we did not want to go shopping, we did not want to go to the golf club … », recalls María in reference to all that attempt by a large part of the left to« ridicule »the protests, minimizing them to a well-off social stratum . «What we wanted was for the government to resign », Maria indignantly warns, making clear the reason for her protest. And so they captured it on their flag.
As María recalls, from the first day they carried that flag (physically carried by one of her children and a friend of hers, the rest of the family is behind her) they noticed the media attention. The image illustrated press reports and was reflected in a multitude of television news broadcasts. It was the second day they took out that flag when they also clearly saw an increase in the police attention.
That first visual follow-up became what Maria now calls “intimidation.” For a few days thereafter, officers repeatedly asked them the identification “Even though we were not breaking any rules.” They were not standing on the road (beyond waiting for the traffic light to turn green to cross), they were not invading the road, they were not breaking the safety distance. In fact, this can be seen in the images taken by OKDIARIO during one of those protests.
“Concrete orders”
«It was very clear that the Police had concrete guidelines to intimidate and to make believe that with possible sanctions they could put us in trouble for those who carried flags or inscriptions. The thing is that the Police, thank God, even though they are following instructions, they did not behave in a way that would lead to the confrontation, “explains María.
«The Police showed that they wanted to follow the instructions they had received, as is their duty, but they understood that I had done nothing. That I was not breaking any law, I was only exercising a right. They put them in a very difficult situation by sending them out as thugs to intimidate us ». However, Maria acknowledges that the agents only follow orders from above and recognizes them “All his work”.
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