in the uk we always suspect agents provocateur and police infiltration within large manifestations. however, in barcalona last month i witnessed it at first hand.
the tactic employed by the police was as follows-
on one side of plaza catalunya (cort ingles) there was a large concentration of police. on the opposite side (and also i believe beside the ramblas) there were several riot vans and a few dozen tooled up cops. behind the police stood 10-12 men, wearing ordinary clothes.
from the far side of the plaza the police released a volley of gun fire, either tear gas, rubber bullets or a combination of both.
this resulted in people running from the plaza, and allowed for the plain clothed police to come from behind their lines and start trashing windows, hitting innocent bystanders etc.. some of these coppers attempted to conceal their identity with scarfs, including the catalan flag.
however they were exposed as there seemed to be a few minutes delay between the first volley and the police entering the plaza. the police tactic was revealed to all who cared to look.
it happens, only now they do so more blatantly, which isn´t particularly reasurring.

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