The Neighborhood Human Rights Observation Brigades (Brigadas Vecinales de Observatión de Derechos Humanos), a Madrid-based citizen organization that monitors police activities, recently presented its third report, covering 2012 to 2014.
During this period, the observers were able to confirm and document ethnic profiling, demonstrating that the measures ostensibly taken by the government to eradicate this discriminatory, illegal and arbitrary activity are dead letter.
It should be noted that the report calls attention to another very troubling element: the harassment, through reprisals such as fines and criminal accusations, of the activists participating in this collective by Spanish authorities.
In addition to violating the freedoms of expression and assembly of the activists, the authorities thus obstruct a process of observation, the sole objective of which is to guarantee that police officers do not discriminate and do respect the law in all their activities.