Crying wolf

After the tragic killing of Mateo in Toledo, columnist David Andrews argues that the recent racist attacks, slurs and misinformation on social media in Spain are intentioned and orchestrated

David Andrews

Malaga

Friday, 13 September 2024, 15:17

According to Aesop, liars receive their comeuppance once people cease to believe their falsehoods; as has been seen in recent years, while comforting to hear, ... real life differs greatly from fables.

Spain is still reeling from the death of Mateo, an eleven year old, stabbed to death while playing football with his friends in a small town in the province of Toledo. To add insult to injury (or in this case the murder of a child), family members have been subjected to virulent attacks on the internet for requesting that "nobody should be criminalised for their ethnic origin, race, colour or religious beliefs".

The appeal was made following comments on social media, which appeared within a couple of hours of the news breaking, blaming the tragic event on Maghrebis and then on "Latino" gangs. These 'bulos' (fake news) were not fabricated and propagated by some gormless, anonymous teenager, but rather by a politician, who has been elected to the European parliament, and his circle of cronies. Following a drawn-out police investigation and manhunt, a 20-year-old Spaniard, with more-than-probable psychological problems, has been arrested and accused of the murder. The suspect was on holiday in the village where his parents are from and his grandparents still live.

A day later, a Catalan mayor tweeted that he had seen a group of Moroccans on the ferry from Ibiza to Barcelona wearing sunglasses and carrying mobile phones and who, he hypothesised, would arrive in Barcelona, spread out through Catalonia and "lo que ocurra después... la mayoría ya lo sabemos" (whatever happens next... the majority of us already know or can guess).

This kind of racist attacks, slurs and misinformation are intentioned and orchestrated. They try to create a general sensation of insecurity and sow the seed that we are all at risk of being murdered, stabbed, raped, robbed or having our houses illegally occupied by groups of marauding immigrants.

These confabulated posts on social media have no factual base and are motivated by ethnic, religious and racial bigotry; aimed at manipulating public opinion. According to Spain's INE national statistic institute, there were 426,416 crimes committed in Spain in 2022 (the latest data available on its www.ine.es website); of these offences 316,356 (75%) were perpetrated by Spaniards, 33,370 by Europeans (excluding the Spanish), 36,289 by Africans, 36,937 by Americans, 3,444 by Asians and 20 by nationals from Oceania.

These numbers don't really support a view that we are awash with a crime wave headed by an immigrant invasion. And, more importantly, prove that no particular immigrant is more inclined to break the law than another (or more than the Spanish); the figures are pretty similar for Europeans, Africans or Americans. Unfortunately, unlike the boy in Aesop's fable, even though these lies are quickly unmasked, the fabricators of this despicable racist rabble-rousing do not seem to lose their credibility nor their platform, well not among their supporters at least.

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