Date Published: 22/04/2020
ARCHIVED - Alhama lockdown breaker arrested after attacking police officers
ARCHIVED ARTICLE
The woman is a repeat offender who broke an arresting officer’s finger
A 22-year-old woman in Alhama de Murcia has been arrested after she attacked police officers who asked her to identify herself when she was caught breaking the coronavirus lockdown restrictions, breaking a finger of one of them and kicking another in the chest.
It appears that the woman is well-known to the local police and has already been fined on 11 occasions in the past. This latest incident was the third time she has been found to be breaching the quarantine during the state of emergency, but despite her violent reaction to being detained she has been allowed free pending investigation by the courts of Totana.
Since the lockdown began six weeks ago a total of 15 people have been arrested in Alhama and a further 500 reported. One man was held in preventative custody after repeatedly refusing to remain in his home and spitting at other people in the street, and other instances of similar behaviour have resulted in 10 people being arrested elsewhere in the Region of Murcia.
Breaking lockdown is an offence, not a crime!
However, as the arrested begin to make appearances before judges and magistrates throughout the Region and elsewhere in Spain, it is reported that many of the cases are being thrown out of court on the grounds that breaking the lockdown order without justification is, technically speaking, not a “crime” but an “offence”.
This is held to be the situation even in the case of repeat offenders, unless they are also guilty of resisting arrest or directly disobeying the forces of the law or other authorities. In consequence their offences ought to be dealt with by the relevant public administration body rather than in a court of law, as the mere fact of being out in public without justification does not constitute a crime.
However, among the “aggravating circumstances” which could lead to lockdown-breaking being a more serious offence are the fact of being infected with the coronavirus or boasting about having flouted the emergency regulations (for example on social network sites), as well as resisting arrest or failing to obey a direct order issued by a police officer.
In short, it would seem that the hastily drawn-up legislation introduced by the Spanish government on 14th March has some minor loopholes in this respect, but nonetheless the message remains absolutely clear:
LOCKDOWN MEANS LOCKDOWN. STAY AT HOME. STAY SAFE AND DO YOUR BIT TO REDUCE THE SPREAD OF CORONAVIRUS.
Further information about Alhama de Murcia is available at www.alhamatoday.com.