Barcelona City Council, the Col·legi de l’Advocacia and civil society come together to promote the legal measures necessary to combat the phenomenon of multiple recidivism. At an event at the Illustrious Bar Association of Barcelona in which lawyers presented two legislative proposals to stop multiple recidivism and illegal occupations, the mayor of Barcelona Jaume Collboni assured that “it is a metropolitan cry” to punish behavior of criminals who act repeatedly. “We have to stop repeat offenders from laughing at our police and the judicial system.” Collboni recalled that the Guardia Urbana and the Mossos d’Esquadra have increased their staff by 1,000 and 600 officers respectively, which has led to an increase in arrests, but even so when they arrive at the court “they find a funnel.” “What should be quick trials are being done in a year. And for a crime of this nature, time is essential,” added the mayor.

The mayor has endorsed the lawyers’ proposals and recognizes that it is necessary to modify the previous reform approved in August 2022 that attempted to address the problem, but that has not worked. “A public policy must be rectified if it does not work. If we are not obtaining the result we were looking for, we must make changes. The tranquility of citizens depends on it,” Collboni stressed. “It is a message to governments. “To the Government of Spain and Catalonia that this is a priority issue and that the reforms must move quickly.” In addition to the mayor of Barcelona, ??the event was also attended by the mayor of Santa Coloma, Núria Parlón; that of Sant Adrià de Besòs, Filo Cañete; that of Sant Boi and president of the Barcelona Provincial Council, Lluïsa Moret as well as representatives of civil society such as Luís Sans, from the Association of Friends of Passeig de Gràcia. The legal profession proposes two legislative changes that must be assumed by the political parties and presented to the Congress of Deputies.

The first proposal proposes that the current requirement that the sum of the amounts stolen in three minor crimes be greater than 400 euros be withdrawn. “We have planned a reform that only goes back. “If the offender has been convicted of three minor crimes, an aggravating circumstance will be applied and his crime will become a less serious one,” explained one of the speakers of the proposal, lawyer Emilio Zegrí. The current law to apply the aggravating circumstance of multiple recidivism requires that the amount of what was stolen in the three minor crimes exceed 400 euros. The lawyers’ proposal asks to withdraw this requirement and that in any case it be the accused’s lawyer who notifies the judge that what was stolen on previous occasions corresponded to minimum amounts. “We relieve the judge of looking for the three previous sentences and we pass the burden of the irrelevance of the evidence to the defense,” adds Zegrí. In parallel, they also propose that the theft of a mobile phone be considered a less serious crime and that the judge can dictate precautionary measures of imprisonment. “We want to have answers and not cause distress to the citizen security forces who tell us that they detain individuals 30 or 40 times and nothing happens. It must have consequences. We must give an appropriate response to the 21st century. We do not want more prison but we want more peace of mind for citizens,” reasoned another of the drafters of the proposal, lawyer Jorge Navarro.