Barcelona the city of The Saga Familia
the ramblas and the boaria market is a
Hot Topic it is one of the most popular
cities in the world nevertheless it's
not all good news the city has a serious
problem with Public Safety those of you
who are watching us from Spain or know
the city well may find new stories like
these quite common Barcelona closes 2023
with a generalized increase in all types
of crime Barcelona capital of crime and
now of course course Barcelona is not
Rio de Janeiro Caracas or anything of
the sort but in the Spanish and European
context the evolution of this city in
terms of the lack of security is
worrying to say the least in the city of
gudi an average of 575 crimes per day
were reported in 2023 and this figure is
growing steadily among them the most
common are theft and robbery in fact
according to eurostat Barcelona has
become the Spanish capital of robbery
and only Brussels surpasses it at the
European level in other words if you're
going to visit this beautiful city keep
a hold of your wallet for example theft
that is robberies without violence
account for 48.1% of all crimes in the
city that is the big security problem
but visual politic Community it is far
from the only
one according to data from the Barcelona
city council itself more than 27,000
people were arrested in the city
sometimes dubbed CAD kondal in 20123
which is 23% more than a year earlier
but to make matters worse of all those
arrested a core group of 526 known
multi- recidivist offenders committed
more than 6,100 criminal acts that is 2%
of those arrested committed more than
22% of all crimes and yes they are still
on the streets because that's how they
roll in
Spain and let's see as you can imagine
all that we are telling you obviously
relates to something and that is
precisely what we want to find out here
on visual politic and that is what we
are going to look at a little later in
this very video but that's not all other
even more serious types of crime have
also been on the rise for some time now
generating headlines and giving
Barcelona an appalling image and bad
publicity both inside and increasingly
Beyond Spanish borders Barcelona
registered three sexual assaults a day
in 2023 with all this data it is not
surprising that according to some public
opinion polls more than 60% of Barcelona
residents are afraid to walk alone at
night and that in a traditionally safe
country like Spain is truly outrageous
in fact some of the visual politic team
was in Barcelona Rec ly preparing some
new projects and the fact is that we had
the perception that this feeling of
growing criminality is widespread in the
taxi in the hotel in the stores and in
the meetings every time you asked
someone the answer was always the same
in recent years the city has become much
worse due to theft and other
crimes in the same vein it is also not
surprising that almost half of the women
in Barcelona say they feel unsafe at
night fearing sexual assault and let's
see it is true that the increasing crime
is a widespread phenomenon both in Spain
and in Western Europe in fact in 2023
the total number of crimes committed
Nationwide already exceeded 2019
pre-pandemic Levels by 6% however and
this is often the catch not all crimes
have the same impact on people and their
sense of security for example Spain
experiences a great deal of crime
related to cyber crime more than 16% of
the total however these crimes do not
generate fear of going out on the street
at night or of being assaulted during a
robbery nevertheless crimes that do have
a direct impact on the feeling of
security are more frequent in Barcelona
than elsewhere in the country but why
are we talking specifically about
Barcelona and not about any of the many
other European cities that are also
seeing their security levels
worsen well you see one of the reasons
is precisely that the statistics
indicate that something serious seems to
be happening with the foreign population
of this city take a look 78.8% of those
arrested in Barcelona between January
2023 and in December of last year were
foreigners this is clear from the arrest
statistics both by the urban guard City
police and by the mosos deadra Regional
Police and of course the easy simple
thing to do would be to conclude that if
in Barcelona the foreign population
currently represents 23.6% of the total
and this 23.6% is responsible for 78.8%
of the crimes the immigrants are to
blame for everything right that the
increase in crime in Barcelona is
directly linked to the increase in the
foreign population this is in fact what
is claimed by some political groups both
National regional and local if we were
to do the same we would likely get a lot
of Applause however I'm sorry to say we
are not like that here the mistake is to
stay only in the statistics to look for
the causality in the correlation and not
to really try to discover the reasons
and before some of you jump on my case
let me tell you about other examples
from other similar
cities in Madrid with more than 100,000
more immigrants than Barcelona crimes
committed by this population account for
around 30% of the total 48 points less
than in Barcelona that is to say
considerably less than half there's also
the case of Paris where the percentage
of immigrants is similar to that of
Barcelona however according to data
provided by macron himself crimes
committed by foreigners account for 48%
of the total as you can see both cases
are far from the 78.8% of the Catalan
Capital so in the European context the
case of Barcelona is striking and must
be a response to something else so the
question seems clear what on Earth is
going on well pay very very close
attention because we're about to give
you all the
details broken
windows there are many many theories
that try to explain why in some cities
crime suddenly starts to increase with
seemingly no end in sight some blame the
lack of police or that the police are
too soft others blame the laws and
politicians and others blame the arrival
of irregular migrants these are reasons
for all tastes but what if there was
something else that we rarely take into
account you see one of the theories not
exactly new of why a city can end up
falling into decline is precisely in the
public space in what surrounds us Yes
you heard me and let me stress we don't
want to suggest that other reasons do
not play a role but there is one theory
that explains to a large extent why
cities deteriorate we're talking about
the theory of broken
windows the idea gained Traction in the
early 1980s with American criminologists
James Q Wilson and George L Kelling
their thesis was very simple if you
leave a window unrepaired more broken
windows will gradually appear however
much earlier in 1969 experiments on this
phenomenon had already been carried out
for example psychologist Philip zimbardo
tried leaving two cars parked one run
down and in poor condition in the
troubled Bronx neighborhood of New York
and the other in perfect condition in
the wealthy California City of Palo Alto
the car in the Bronx was quickly
ransacked no surprise the Poo Alto one
was undamaged for weeks but when
investigators purposely smashed the
windows before long the car met the same
fate as the one in the Bronx it was
completely
ransacked the idea of this experiment
was to demonstrate that it doesn't
matter whether we're talking about
affluent or depressed neighborhoods if
in any of them there are elements that
degrade the environment than crime and
vandalism Skyrocket obviously all this
talk talk about broken windows is just
an example the point is that if for
example graffiti dirt or unrepaired
damage to public Furniture suddenly
appear then the wave is likely to spread
like there is no tomorrow suddenly the
social norms of coexistence disappear
and visual politic viewers Barcelona
like many other cities has had many
broken windows in recent
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years we're talking above all about the
abandonment of public space and
everything that implies coexistence in
society graffiti Urban Furniture in poor
condition streets full of dirt traces of
narcotic consumption illegal squatting
in houses and even poor Street lighting
all this has been increasing in recent
years in Barcelona in some neighborhoods
much more than in others and at the same
time crime rates have been rising this
occurred especially during the meril te
of the recently replaced aah CAO the
problem of dirtiness in Barcelona
becomes the biggest front for kalao
drugs syringes and dirt the daily life
of The Gardens and playground of a
school in Barcelona it's true in all
cities there are Corners with these
types of problems but in Barcelona the
situation extends to almost entire
neighborhoods as for instance in the
central neighborhood of el raval in some
cases the situation has gotten so out of
control that it has become common to see
people urinating shamelessly in the
street in broad daylight right in front
of the frustrated gaze of neighbors and
tourists well this type of behavior
typically ends up having a strong
influence on people's behavior and with
it on crime rate and feelings of
safety in other words neglect on the
part of the public authorities generates
more neglect on the part of those who
live in the city has it ever happened to
you that you are in a very clean place
and you are very embarrassed if you drop
a piece of paper on the floor well
that's just what happens in Reverse too
imperfection begets more imperfection
and so the problem snowballs take last
year 2023 for example Barcelona came to
be considered by the Association of
consumers and users of Spain as the
sixth dirtiest City in Spain and second
among large cities with more than half a
million inhabitants it was surpassed
only by sevil a cockroach is given to a
kalao at the feses De Gracia to denounce
dirtiness but in Barcelona it's not just
about filth two of the broken windows
that are of the most concern in
Barcelona are the habitual consumption
of drugs in the streets and the illegal
squatting in dwellings in this vein the
District of theot V or the old town
which is where El raval is located is
the setting for more than 22% of all
crimes committed in the city despite the
fact that this area accounts for little
more than 4% of the territory and is
home to only 6% of the City's population
the feeling of lack of control by the
authorities and in many cases even
sympathy for certain types of crime also
explain much of the decline that
Barcelona has been enduring for some
time now a clear example is occupation
that is a particularly Spanish
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concept you see Spanish style squatting
basically consists of entering a house
changing the locks and living there for
free for a few years squatters often
choose supposedly empty homes such as
second homes or Bank foreclosed homes of
course it doesn't matter all of those
homes do have legitimate owners then in
other cases instead of forcing their way
in there are people who enter as tenants
and soon after stop paying rent and
refuse to leave in most countries in the
developed world doing this would mean
immediate eviction as soon as the
landlord calls the police in Spain
however it's not so simple and in this
matter the country is once again an
international exception squatters the
time it takes to evict a squatter in
Spain has increased the average period
of verbal proceedings and appeals
reached 20.5 months in 2022 according to
the cgp J experts call for Urgent
regulatory changes in Spain in some
circumstances it can take up to almost 2
years to be able to evict by court order
the people who have occupied your
property and take note because if the
squat are declared at risk of social
exclusion then the eviction may take
even longer perhaps the most surprising
thing is that given the problem of the
high price of housing a result of the
strong restrictions that exist in the
country to build more houses has meant
that from some social and political
spheres the squatting movement is seen
in a positive light and take a guess who
was a housing activist and one of the
main Defenders of squatters exactly the
former mayor of Barcelona adaka the
Barcelona Court calls aah kauo to
testify accused of supporting the
squatters if in fact kalao herself lived
as a squatter for a while before
becoming mayor yes strange but
true giving all this it's not surprising
that Barcelona became the squatting
capital of Spain and probably also of
Europe the figures speak for themselves
take a look and while Catalonia is the
region with the most squatters by far
Barcelona is the Catalan province with
the most squatters more than half of all
those in the region and check out the
trend squatters in Catalonia increased
by 82% in years they are concentrated in
the metropolitan area of Barcelona which
leads all statistics so what is the
underlying problem and what does it have
to do with
crime well you see the problem is that
many of the people who squat in
Barcelona are not exactly peaceful
struggling families in need of a roof
over their heads they are much more
problematic people in fact many of these
homes are used for drug trafficking and
prostitution they are also sometimes
used as drug flats that is to say
Apartments where people go to buy
narcotics and often consume them on the
spot these are perhaps the most serious
and difficult to solve broken windows in
Barcelona and without a doubt as long as
there are no legal changes at the
national level to put an end to the
squatting issue this will not cease to
exist even so we are not finished yet
the increasing crime in the Catalan
Capital also has other aspects that are
let's just say a bit more controversial
as we said before there are many voices
that blame the increase in illegal
immigration of non-westerners as one of
the clear causes cuses for the drift of
criminality and deterioration in the
city but is this true well let's take a
look immigration
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issue if there is one thing that almost
all sociologists and criminologists
agree on is that poverty is one of the
main generators of crime especially if
we're talking about poverty without hope
of improvement therefore in the places
where there is more poverty there tends
to be more crime well although Barcelona
is a reasonably wealthy City it is also
one of the European cities with the
largest pockets of poverty in fact more
than 20% of the population is at risk of
poverty and a significant chunk of that
20% are foreigners no less than 70% of
non-western immigrants are in a
situation of social exclusion this is
something that particularly affects the
youngest many of them arrive alone
undocumented and without the possibility
of having their background checked as is
the case for example with regular
immigration obviously this has an
undesirable effect which is that some
end up opting for Crime to try to
achieve a standard of living similar to
that of the local population meanwhile
other possibilities that are widely
considered are social policies that are
based on giving direct Aid without
having to work and develop skills as
well as policies that concentrate many
foreigners in social housing that end up
becoming ghettos this is a well-known
phenomenon in Europe here on visual
politic we already told you some time
ago about the examples of Sweden and
Denmark we'll leave you the link below
in the description
the problem with these policies is that
many newcomers show no interest in
integrating into local communities or
seeking formal jobs in fact they often
limit themselves to interacting with
others from cultures similar to their
own even so the opposite is also true
many illegal immigrants do not receive
any kind of Public Assistance which
means that they end up in a serious
situation of exclusion that becomes the
perfect breeding ground for criminal
groups in other words it's all or
nothing if subsidies do not actively
promote integration and entry into the
labor market the problems multiply but
if nothing is done you get a similar
result because make no mistake if you
can't work for instance because you
don't have papers the alternative to
poverty in many cases is this the
catalon macro Mafia installed in
Barcelona the mosos Regional Police
detected that the men all between 30 and
35 years old all from North Africa who
are linked to ATM robberies l a very
high standard of living much higher than
what they could afford based on their
income there are already signs that the
mro mafia is trying to establish itself
in
Barcelona we're talking about one of the
most dangerous criminal organizations in
Europe that has been growing for years
since it first appeared in the
Netherlands and Belgium this criminal
organization takes advantage of people
mainly North Africans who are in a
situation of exclusion in order to
recruit them and lead them to Crime the
younger ones are recruited for drug
dealing while older ones commit more
sophisticated crimes and of course the
fact that bar Ona has a major cargo port
and a free trade zone through which
drugs could be imported from abroad is
an additional ingredient this could
partly explain why Barcelona is one of
the places chosen by the mro mafia to
extend its influence from Central Europe
to southern Europe and although to be
fair crime in the Catalan capital is not
yet for the most part organized the
truth is that it has the ingredients for
things to get out of control this
scenario could provide the final blow to
a city that as we have seen has
witnessed its crime rates rise sharply
in recent years is the question at this
point is will Barcelona manage to
reverse the situation the new local
government is taking some steps to
eliminate some of the broken windows we
have talked about however it is not
known if it may already be too late now
while that's happening it's your turn
what do you think could be the solution
to Barcelona's decline do you think the
broken windows Theory could be happening
in that City well leave us your opinions
Below in the comments and let's start a
debate now if you found this video
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much for being there all the best see
you next time