Alex Trelinski
A Policia Nacional officer is being investigated for hitting a homeless man in an Alicante street.
An internal probe has been launched after a video emerged of two officers confronting the man in the Altozano area of the city.
The footage was recorded by a local resident and made available to the Informacion newspaper.
One of the officers was heard to shout ‘record what you want’ at the phone-holding resident,
Police were called last Saturday morning after getting a complaint that a man was allegedly defecating in the doorway of a building.
The complainant said that he threw bottles of urine at front doors.
One of the officers hit the man hard, threw his belongings to the ground and made verbal insults including calling him an ‘imbecile’.
Informacion reported that the police regarded the 20-year-old homeless man as ‘very confrontational and aggressive who had problems with local residents’.
He was known to the police after a series of incidents.
They included kicking a passer-by who refused to give him money and being arrested in September by the Policia Local for ‘threats and disobedience’.
The internal Policia Nacional investigation will see if the officer who hit the man has criminal or disciplinary charges to answer.
Alicante councillor and member of the Unides Podem party, Xavier Lopez, said: “I’m convinced that officers can use better methods which do not involve physical aggression when dealing with vulnerable people.”
Image Credit: Policia Nacional
