© elespanol.comThe incident at the cafe, left, and the injured father, right
Tensions were very high as the streets of the town in the vicinity of the police station filled with angry demonstrators, with Hernán Cortés street, where the police station is located, having to be cordoned off by police cars and riot police, due to the increasing numbers of people.
The crowd spilled over into the adjacent Bailen Street, where protestors clashed with police officers, with containers being overturned and set on fire, and people throwing stones and other objects at the police. Riscos Street is also cordoned off, and some locals have described the atmosphere in this area of Linares to Diariosur as being like a 'powder keg'.
Officers from the National and Local Police, together with members of the Autonomous Police did their best to control the angry crowd and reported that the demonstrators had started to dissolve, but that there were still three separate groups of violent people maintaining the tension, and so far, four arrests have been made.
A police spokesman told Diariosur that there is a group of calm demonstrators as well, but stressed, "The night is going to be long and complicated," describing the area as "a battlefield".
The City Council of Linares released a statement that said, "Justice has initiated this Saturday the necessary procedures to debug all responsibilities for the unfortunate events that occurred yesterday and that have caused very serious injuries to a resident of our city".
It continued, "The society of Linares, without fissures, has shown its firm and forceful repulsion to the lamentable images that we saw yesterday afternoon. Linares is a city that has been able to be at the height at all times. Now it is Justice who must act. Finally, we reiterate again our support to the victim and his family".
Comment: Here's footage of the 'off-duty' police officers beating the father (and later the daughter, who attempts to stop the brutal assault). It's disturbing to watch, so please watch at your discretion:
According to this report, both father and daughter sustained serious facial injuries. The coppers involved have since been arrested - which is probably for their own good because the whole town reacted when they saw the above footage by seeking them out in order to give them a little justice of their own. Riot police have since been called in to scatter the protesters:
We can't yet establish what the original 'offense' was - what led the police to assault the father and daughter - but we would not be surprised to learn that it was 'lockdown-related'.
The situation isn't just a 'powder keg' in this small city in Spain; the situation is ripe for vigilante 'snapback' right across the West.