Progression of the Police State Spanish Style: €300 Euro Fine for Calling Police Officer "Mate"; Law of Simmering Social Pots

Ministry of Truth Gag Law

On July 1, Spain enacted a "gag" law that provides for showing "disrespect to police.

Among the many new repressive stipulations is a €30,000-€600,000 fine for "unauthorized protests," which can be combined for maximum effect with a €600-€300,000 fine for "disrupting public events."

A few days ago, in Police State "Ministry of Truth" Hits Spain I noted a man was fined €600 for Calling police "Slackers" on facebook.

Progression of the Police State

Today a man was fined €300 for calling a police officer "mate" in the presence of others. The actual word in Spanish that resulted in the fine was "colega".

Reader Bran who sent me the story commented, "colega is something like 'mate' in English. Colega is not spoken with a spit of sarcasm like mate is sometimes, at worst it is questioning,  overly familiar, or as a light joke."

I looked up the Definition of Colega.

1. Colleague, co-worker (United States)
2. Counterpart
3. Pal, mate (British), buddy (United States) 

Crime and Fine

Here is the story pretty much as translated by Google: 300 Euro Fine for Calling an Officer a Colleague.

A neighbor of Malaga this July received a fine for using the word 'colleague' to address the security agents' presence of pedestrians in the area. According to the portal that has echoed the complaint, Forotransportistas, the facts occurred on July 5 during a night breathalyser test being conducted by the Civil Guard.

The sanctioned citizen was required to submit to a breathalyzer test in Street Blas Infante (Málaga) when he enunciated this colloquial nickname aimed at one of the agents.

Such behavior was described in the aforementioned fine as' contemptuous and inconsiderate. The legal text allegedly breached Article 37.4 of the controversial Public Safety Act. According to the Act, this minor minor offense shows "lack of respect and consideration to a member of the Security Forces in the performance of their duties to protect the safety."

Civil Guard



Photo of an officer of the Civil Guard. / EFE

What Not To Say

Don't say "Colleague, Pal, Buddy, or Mate" to a crossing guard, police office, or other civil official.

If you do, you are subject to a huge fine.

Law of Simmering Social Pots

The gag law may limit minor protests for a while, but it will also simmer increasing resentment over time.

The law of simmering social pots:  Putting a tight lid on a simmering social pot will eventually cause a huge boil-over, and perhaps an explosion, at some point in the future.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com