On 4 February 2006, 9 squatters and anarchists were arrested after a riot
in the neighborhood of El Forat de la Vergonya in central Barcelona.  El
Forat is the site of a powerful community resistance, uniting young and
old, squatters and renters, that defeated a city project to construct a
parking lot, and maintained the two year occupation of a community garden
that the neighbors had set up themselves.  Barcelona is subject to an
extremely violent gentrification process, and this victory is historic.

During the resistance, a new squat appeared in the area, with no
connection to the movement.  "El Teatro" was the scene of huge parties and
drug dealing, and also the home of suspected police informers. 

 For a longtime the Barcelona police had been protecting the squat
from its legally mandated eviction.  On 4F, four cops were provoking an
incident at El
Teatro, where a major party was raging.  Rodrigo, Alex, and Juan, three
squatters, were passing by on their way home.  All three are from Latin
America.  The police began yelling racial insults at them and started a
fight.  The fight turned into a riot, with drunken party-goers inside
taking part.  One of them threw or knocked off a flower pot, onto the head
of one of the cops, who was seriously injured and went into a coma.

 The cause of the injury was confirmed by medical examiners, on-the-scene
witnesses, and the mayor of Barcelona (who later changed his story).  Riot
police who happened to be on call in the neighborhood sho