Renfe has asked Sureste, the company responsible for the security personnel at the Plaza de Catalunya station in Barcelona, ??to open an information file and “immediately” remove from service the four security guards who yesterday afternoon restrained a young black man who had sneaked in. Some people who were at the station at that time recorded the scene with their mobile phones and those videos have gone viral on social networks.
In these images we do not see how the incident begins, but rather they begin with several security guards surrounding the young man who, in a threatening attitude, invites the men to approach. Next, the guards throw him to the ground and try to restrain and handcuff him, while some people in turn surround the four men, even touching them, until some plainclothes urban guards arrive and take charge of the situation.
Renfe has indicated that the security company is responsible for opening the file and emphasizes that it does not tolerate “any attitude, neither verbal nor physical, that could threaten the integrity of travelers, regardless of the previous event that has occurred.”
The union Alternative Union of Private Security Workers, ASTSP, for its part, has released a statement this Thursday in which it denounces “the lynching that these workers have suffered since yesterday afternoon, Wednesday, September 20, “for the simple fact of “Do your job: ensure the safety of users in the face of a man’s attempt to violate public space.”
According to the internal report prepared by the workers of Sureste Seguridad, a company subcontracted by Renfe for the surveillance of this station, the note adds, “it all began around 6:32 p.m., when the security guards observed that there was a man hanging from the railing of the station. the stairs in order to access the platforms without going through the control of the ticket validating machines”. When the young man sneaked in, the security company employees wanted to identify him and make him leave the station, but “at that moment he began to rebuke the security guards and challenge them to fight.”
The union claims that the security workers tried to appease him while they waited for the presence of the Urban Police, who had been alerted, but the young man adopted an aggressive attitude and some users even rebuked and insulted them. The national spokesperson for Alternativa Sindical, Alberto Garcia, has denounced “the manipulation of what happened by some parties and the media” and has announced that they will appear to defend the work and dignity of the vigilantes in the face of these attacks.
