The Sunday Telegraph Sunday 1 September 2019 ** 17
Barcelona’s
pickpockets
face vigilante
justice patrols
By Alan Ruiz Terol in Barcelona
ARMED with whistles and dressed in
athletic clothing, the vigilantes start
their daily round at one of their favour-
ite hunting grounds: Barcelona’s Diag-
onal metro stop, a perfect feast of
tourists and commuters.
It takes less than five minutes to spot
their first target: “Pickpocket!”
Like a wolf pack, five members of the
10-strong citizens’ patrol start chasing
the supposed thief, out into the street.
He’s not alone. “There’s another one,”
they cry.
The pair are dragged back into a cor-
ner of the station by security and, with
the help of the vigilantes, guarded until
police arrive.
By then, tensions have risen consid-
erably. The alleged pickpockets have
grown aggressive, threatening patrol
members.
Some have taken justice into their
own hands. “Who used the pepper
spray?” an officer asks. “You do a good
job, but sometimes you go too far. If
he’s left blind, the one who did it will be
in trouble.”
The pepper-sprayer makes himself
known and apologises to the group.
Another member is regretful of speak-
ing out of line in front of journalists.
The group leader gently chides
them, before they pat each others’
backs and laugh. The patrol continues.
The leader, Eliana Guerrero, is a
nemesis for pickpockets. For 12 years,
she acted as a lone wolf, warning tour-
ists of thieves in the city’s metro.
But the increase in crimes such as
violent robberies – up 31 per cent from
last year – has put security at the top of
the public agenda, and others have de-
cided to join her.
According to police, around 100
pickpockets make a daily living in the
Barcelona metro. Law enforcement has
found a useful ally in the patrols. But
Catalan police prefer to distance them-
selves from the patrols in public.
Last July, the city council threatened
the patrols with legal action. But patrol
members doubt the council will dare,
especially since security has become
the main concern for locals.
In four years, residents citing it as
their biggest worry have increased
from 3.4 per cent to 27.4 per cent.
Police insist they take it seriously –
with 300 new officers to be deployed
this month. But they say the social
alarm is not proportionate to reality.
The Catalan Association of Criminol-
ogists also deny any security crisis.
“We’re used to very low rates of vio-
lent crimes, so whenever it goes up, the
increase seems much bigger,” says Pe-
dro Campoy, its spokesman. “Crime
rates in other European cities receiving
millions of tourists a year are higher.”
The vigilantes remain committed to
their cause. Patrulla Ciudadana, MsGuerrero’s group, spends around three
hours every day guarding the subway
and some of the busiest tourist spots.
But some are wary that the more
people that take part, the more difficult
it will be to control them.
Roger Maddocks, born in the Isle of
Man but living in Barcelona for eight
years, joined Ms Guerrero last April,
but later broke with the patrol.
He said: “We can have a list of rules,
but you end up having random people
who think they’re Rambo start pushing
thieves to the ground, using pepper
spray.”
While distancing himself from the
patrols, Mr Maddocks still praises their
work.
“I’m happy citizens have realised
there is a problem,” he said. “If that in-
volves a group of people patrolling the
metro to make it safer, I’m OK with
that. I’m just not going to do it myself.”US national
park rings the
changes with
phone masts
By Harriet Alexander in New YorkTHE hills of one of America’s national
parks will soon be alive with the sound
of mobile phone ring tones, after con-
troversial plans for signal coverage
were approved.
The biggest expansion of telecoms
coverage in the history of the national
parks service comes as campaigners
battle to maintain peace and serenity in
the wilderness across the US.
“It’s a harbinger of what’s to come,”
warned Jeff Ruch, Pacific director for
public employees for environmental
responsibility.
After the first nine mobile phone
masts at Grand Teton National Park in
Wyoming, Mr Ruch said that the Grand
Canyon in Arizona would be next, with
five towers scheduled for approval.
Plans are also in place for Olympic Na-
tional Park in Washington state; Crater
Lake in Oregon; Lake Mead in Nevada
and Arizona, and southern Utah’s Bryce
Canyon, he said.
At Yellowstone National Park, the
oldest national park in the world just 10miles north of Grand Teton, park man-
agers have recommended a move to
block new wireless infrastructure.
Grand Teton, however, chose not to
reduce “spillover” from nine new tow-
ers, meaning that from this time next
year much of the park, visited by over
three million people a year, will be con-
nected. At the same time, 63 miles of
fibre optic cables will be installed.
Mr Ruch said: “It now means that the
person next to you can be streaming
music, downloading a movie, or hunt-
ing Pokemon. You’re depriving people
of the ability to disconnect.”
The national parks service has been
without a permanent director since
January 2017, when Jonathan Jarvis left
the job. Donald Trump’s administration
is yet to push a new appointment
through the Senate.
Denise Germann, spokesman for the
park, told the Jackson Hole Daily: “I
think our employees are pretty stoked
about being able to have better inter-
net and cell service. It’s huge with re-
cruiting and retaining employees.”Glittering entrance Cate Blanchett hits the red carpet at the Sala Grande theatre, Venice,
in a strapless black and silver gown for the screening of Joker, starring Joaquin Phoenix,
about the origins of the DC comic book villain, at the 76th Venice Film Festival.VITTORIO ZUNINO CELOTTO/GETTY IMAGESWorld news
‘We can have a list of rules
but you end up havingrandom people who think
that they are Rambo’Grand Teton National
Park’s masts plan will
set the tone for
further mobile phone
coverage across US
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