On October 1, 2017, the police of the Spanish State (known as the
National Police) endeavored to take the polling boxes where Catalan
people were voting in a referendum with two choices: for or against
Catalonian independence from the Spanish State. The voting took place in
barricaded buildings (most of them state schools) to protect the boxes
containing the votes. With the intent to collect the boxes and stop the
voting, the National Police used all types of repressive measures, from
rubber bullets, to gas and batons. Nearly 900 people were seriously
hurt, and two were in critical condition in area hospitals.
Televised images of police brutality shocked the Catalan population,
which responded by staging mass street protests against the National
Police. These forced the repression to end by early afternoon, allowing
people to keep voting until 8:00 p.m. It was the victory of the
population over the Central State and its police. The repression failed
to stop the referendum, with 2.5 million voting (ca. 43 percent of the
electorate) and 90 percent favoring independence. The police infuriated
people who had not planned to vote because they did not sympathize with
the pro-independence movement led by the Catalan government. Many of
them
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