The death last Sunday of a 69-year-old neighbor in Torredonjimeno (Jaén) has generated a climate of tension and racism in this town. It has generated it because the man died after a struggle while defending himself from a robbery perpetrated by a man of North African origin, who has entered prison accused of the alleged crimes of reckless homicide, injuries and robbery. The death gave way to a rally of revulsion for the events that ended with another attack on an Algerian citizen of the municipality, whom some locals accuse of having given shelter to the alleged murderer. Some events that, according to local sources, make the town a “powder keg” in the middle of the electoral campaign, which is being used by far-right platforms against migrants.
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Further
The facts, which are being investigated by the Court of First Instance and Instruction number 2 of Martos, took place at eleven in the morning last Sunday. According to the version provided by the Civil Guard, a 69-year-old man was walking with his son when a third individual assaulted them to steal a mobile phone. At that moment, a fistfight began between the last two in one of the busiest squares in the town, while a market was taking place. To prevent the situation from escalating, the man tried to separate his son and the attacker, at which point the assailant began to struggle with him until he collapsed to the ground. According to sources from the Armed Institute, the 69-year-old resident of Torredonjimeno died instantly when he fell.
Civil Guard agents appeared at the scene and proceeded to arrest the attacker, initially accusing him of a crime of injury. However, the different testimonies of the witnesses have led the judge investigating the case to charge him with the alleged crimes of reckless homicide, injury and robbery. The accused of murder, who is young, has a police record and does not usually live in Torredonjimeno, is in prison awaiting trial. However, the events, far from staying at what happened on Sunday, have generated a wave of racism, which has grown in recent days on social networks through far-right profiles.
A “racist” response
The same day that the alleged reckless homicide occurred, a group of neighbors staged a rally that ended in a violent act at the home of another local of Algerian origin. Apparently, according to police sources, this man had at some point welcomed the alleged murderer, which prompted some of the Tosirianos – a name for the town – to come to his home to beat him and threaten to burn his property. However, eyewitnesses explain to this medium that the attack was “very violent”, that the man ended up with “several broken bones” and that the intention was not only to burn his house, but “the social housing building in which he lives ”.
The Civil Guard confirms that the assaulted man filed a complaint the following day against three men whom he accuses of having beaten him and the agents charge them with separate crimes of assault for which they are being investigated pending trial. However, this episode has been transferred not only to social networks, but, according to local sources explain to this medium, the atmosphere in Torredonjimeno is very tense. “I wouldn’t want to be mayor right now.”
Among other issues, part of the citizenry accuses the Consistory’s political parties of not having supported the protest rally. In this regard, sources from the political groups explain that they were recommended not to attend for a matter of citizen security. At the same time, they argue that the town, although it is eminently migrant -many of the locals continue to go to France to harvest grapes-, has had coexistence problems for a long time in several areas that passers-by avoid passing through and that these days are being specially marked. One of those points is precisely the Municipal Park in which the fatal outcome occurred and which, according to some Tosirians, is the focus of violence and problems due to large bottles and the groups of people who meet there.
These facts and the tension accumulated in the streets of this town in Jaén is growing on social networks thanks to various profiles of the extreme right who are taking advantage of platforms such as Twitter and Facebook to spread hate messages against foreigners who live in the town . They even go so far as to ask that Torredonjimeno “copy the example of the residents of El Ejido” when in the year 2000 this municipality in Almería experienced a wave of xenophobia after the murder of three residents by two citizens of Moroccan origin. The ejidenses staged riots and attacks against migrants. The Civil Guard is investigating these publications.
The mayor of Torredonjimeno, Manuel Anguita (PSOE), considers that “Tosiriana society does not deserve to have these people among us – in reference to the alleged murderer -“. As alderman he affirms that his town is not “unsafe”. “I refuse to be transferred that it is an insecure, violent town or that the neighbors do not know how to live together.” And he insists that neither the town nor the municipal park be sources of problems. “It is a place where many people meet freely and with respect for citizenship and the law.”
2023-05-19 15:40:11
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