The victims of the group assaults in which minors have participated in Huesca, along with their families, have requested the City Council to take a leading role in promoting new measures, with the aim of ensuring that the city continues to be a safe place and that no other family has to go through a situation similar to what they have experienced.
A representation of assaulted individuals met this Friday at the Huesca City Hall with the mayor of Huesca, Lorena Orduna, to whom they delivered a document that includes ten proposals that, in their opinion, "are necessary to improve the safety of the city, the attention to victims, and the prevention of new assaults."
Among the proposed initiatives, they demand the implementation of a municipal protocol for victim assistance that offers clear information about the steps to take after an assault, legal advice, data on available psychological and social resources, and better coordination among the various public services involved.
Jara Viñuales, one of the spokespersons for the group, explained that "at the moment a person is assaulted, apart from the psychological and physical aspects, they are stunned and do not know what to do, the papers they need to request, where to take them, what will serve you later when reporting the case and in the trial."
The document also calls for an explicit institutional condemnation, the reinforcement of police presence, the installation of more surveillance cameras, the improvement of public lighting, and the creation of a figure or reference service that accompanies victims throughout the entire process. They also propose that the City Council establish a working group to study the evolution of these assaults and coordinate preventive actions, involving the Police, the Juvenile Prosecutor's Office, and representatives from educational centers and social services. They also request the preparation of a periodic report that collects the recorded violent assaults in the city, the responses adopted, and the measures implemented.
Another of the points raised focuses on the City Council, within its competencies and before the competent administrations, promoting the review of action protocols when the aggressors are minors, reinforcing the direct and early involvement of their parents or legal guardians from the very first moment.
The victims also urge the City Council to study the possibility of promoting initiatives directed at the Government of Spain and the General Courts to review the current regulations on the criminal responsibility of minors, conveying the concern that exists among a good part of the citizenry regarding this type of aggression.
In this sense, Viñuales has recalled that "to change the Minor Law, 500,000 signatures are necessary and we have asked for help because it is slipping out of our hands."
He has also emphasized that "unfortunately, these cases of assaults by minors do not only happen in Huesca, they occur in the rest of Spain as well, and perhaps if minors saw that they have more negative effects, they would think twice."
Finally, the assaulted individuals encourage any victim of such events to file a complaint, considering it the only way to combat and stop this scourge.