Spain protests, there have been 50 wounded so far 5 police, which frankly surprises me as this is a very one sided fight the police here are well armed and brutal. Tonight we march, in a protest that has been declared illegal, to the president´s house. I think it will get nasty. The town is covered in graffiti and all the banks and burger joints are plastered with eggs and red paint. The media has turned on the violent factions in the protests and I think the families will stay at home and leave the students, punks and hippies to be beaten where no one can see...

from yesterday night...
There has been fighting on the streets of Madrid for the last two days.
Protests every day in the main squares, outside the parliament, The American
embassy, the PP party headquaters, blocking traffic, and shouting, the
normal kind of stuff.

The crazy thing is the police here who are incredible. They throw flares to
disperse the crowds, shoot rubber bullets as if they needed to get rid of
them and beat anyone they can find. One of my friends was kneed in the balls
by a policeman pretending not to be violent... Yesterday I was with a small
group of people walking to the American Embassy when we were acosted by a
police van. I took out my camera (naturally, being a tourist) and the leader
of the gang of "antidisturbios" told me to put it away or he would break it!
A guy tried to stand up for me, saying that we weren´t doing anything and
got punched in the stomach for his trouble.

Now I am in an internet cafe near Sol, one of the biggest central squares.
it was full of people shouting playing drums and stopping the traffic at the
worst, but now it is full of police vans, fir engines and ambulances for
their victims. We were chased through the streets by gangs of police with
guns shooting rubber bullets at everyone. Now I can still hear the bangs and
smell the fires as people build barricades and burn rubbish on the streets.
The traffic is still blocked, but by the police... I don´t know what they
think they have achieved.

what will happen... nobody knows, but I am surprised there haven´t been any
deaths with the attitude of the police here. It is really fascist... A
teenager was not allowed to wear a peace sticker on his school trip to the
parliament. The police arrive and disperse any demonstration with immediate
unannounced violence.