Robin Hood Strikes Again!

[Acevalefor]

More upheaval and strife going on in Spain. This time a local Mayor is getting involved by using his immunity as a shield to steal from stores and give the food to the needy. He staged a march to gain support and urge other local governments to stop supporting the banks.

NBC "Robin Hood" Story

Link Text:

By NBC News and wire reports
A Spanish mayor who became a cult hero for staging supermarket robberies and giving stolen groceries to the poor on Thursday began a three-week march that looks set to embarrass the government and energize anti-austerity campaigners.
Juan Manuel Sanchez Gordillo, regional lawmaker and mayor of the town of Marinaleda -- population 2,645 -- in the southern region of Andalusia, said food stolen last week in the robberies went to families hit hardest by Spain's economic crisis.
About 1,000 marchers set out from the town of Jodar - the town with Andalusia's highest unemployment rate - intending to walk across the region in blistering summer heat to persuade other local leaders to refuse to comply with government reforms, deputy mayor Esperanze Saavedra told NBC News.
"We want the government to be sensitive to us and think more about those who are suffering than about the banks," Saavedra said.
He plans to tell mayors to skip debt payments, stop layoffs, cease home evictions and ignore central government demands for budget cuts, a message that infuriates Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's government as it tries to convince investors in Spanish bonds that he can fix the battered economy.
Sanchez Gordillo and those working with him say they wants to draw attention to the human face of Spain's economic mess - poverty levels have risen by over 15 percent since 2007, a quarter of workers are jobless and tens of thousands have been evicted from their homes.
Media coverage of the supermarket stunt has made Sanchez Gordillo a national celebrity. While talking to Reuters he was approached by supporters who shook his hand and thanked him for his stand against the conservative government.
"There are people who don't have enough to eat. In the 21st century, this is an absolute disgrace," he told Reuters this week in an interview in the Atocha train station in Madrid, tugging on his graying Fidel Castro-style beard.
Seven people have already been arrested for participating in the two supermarket raids, in which labor unionists, cheered on by supporters, piled food into supermarket carts and walked out without paying while Sanchez Gordillo, 59, stood outside.
He has political immunity as an elected member of Andalusia's regional parliament, but says he would be happy to renounce it and be arrested himself.
Economic troubles
Unemployment in Spain is the highest in at least 30 years, with almost one in four of the population out of work, with one worker in three in Andalusia being jobless. Over half of young people are out of work.
Meanwhile, Rajoy has sought a 100-billion-euro ($125 billion) bailout for the country's banking system. In mid-July, the government also unveiled a new round of cuts intended to trim 65 billion euros from the public deficit by 2014 and help Spain avoid seeking the kind of full-scale bailout that Greece, Ireland and Portugal have taken in the last two years.
The EU has demanded Spain shrink one of Europe's highest budget deficits to prevent the continent's debt crisis from spreading. Rajoy, in power since December, has ordered spending cuts and tax hikes. With poverty rising at one the fastest rates in Europe, protests have gained momentum.
Sanchez Gordillo's activities have garnered praise from some who in Spain, but prompted a storm of criticism from other quarters.
The conservative government says an official has no business flouting the law.
"You can't be Robin Hood and the Sheriff of Nottingham," said Alfonso Alonso, spokesman for the ruling People's Party (PP) in the national Parliament. "This man is just searching for publicity at the cost of everyone else."
Despite the small size of the town where he has been mayor for 30 years, Sanchez Gordillo has long been a fringe figure on the national stage, known for criticism of the mainstream political parties.
He has introduced a cooperative farming system in Marinaleda and has repeatedly tried to take over land for farming, the latest target being 1,200 hectares of land owned by the Ministry of Defense.
His message used to draw only a small following during Spain's boom years when many farm workers, especially in agricultural Andalusia, abandoned fields to work in the profitable construction sector.
But now he has won far more attention as the collapse of a housing bubble forced thousands of unskilled workers back onto farms, while the government sank billions of euros of taxpayer funds into weak banks.
"They say I'm dangerous. And the bankers who are let off for fraud? That's not dangerous? The banks which borrow from the ECB for 1 percent then resell that debt to Spaniards for 6 percent - they're not dangerous?" he said.
Reuters contributed to this report.

The issue I see here is that this guy is stealing from local small business owners to feed people that are out of work/money because of government austerity measures. Yet he is being touted as a Robin Hood for these actions. All he really did there was steal goods from people that had nothing to do with the current fiscal fiasco.

The idea of towns not paying their loan payments and stopping enforcement of bank forclosures might be a little closer to the right course of action to protect the citizens from greedy banks. I see the big banks hiring "private police forces" to continue with their evictions and forclosures though.

[Raldo]

http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/08/16/13310581-spains-robin-hood-mayor-on-march-sparks-outrage-after-supermarket-heists?lite] <--- How do I name that link???

[URL="http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/08/16/13310581-spains-robin-hood-mayor-on-march-sparks-outrage-after-supermarket-heists?lite"]Insert whatever name you want here[/URL] 

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Insert whatever name you want here


On topic: I don't know how much the guy gets paid, but he should just spend his own damn money rather than steal from supermarkets unless his problem was with the supermarkets themselves (hint: it's not). I don't know how far his immunity stretches, but he'd get his point across a lot better if he staged a bank heist (thus taking it out on the banks) and then actually paid for the food.

Why the hell does the mayor have immunity anyway? The only immunity I was aware of was diplomatic immunity, which I thought only applied to foreign diplomats, not domestic ones.

[Acevalefor]

On topic: I don't know how much the guy gets paid, but he should just spend his own damn money rather than steal from supermarkets unless his problem was with the supermarkets themselves (hint: it's not). I don't know how far his immunity stretches, but he'd get his point across a lot better if he staged a bank heist (thus taking it out on the banks) and then actually paid for the food.

Why the hell does the mayor have immunity anyway? The only immunity I was aware of was diplomatic immunity, which I thought only applied to foreign diplomats, not domestic ones.

I know nothing of Spanish politics, but the comments on TheConsumerist said that the immunity exists because of the level of corruption in the government. Somewhere along the line there was a law passed that gave all government officials immunity to the law and none of the politicians want to change that law because they don't want to answer for their crimes.

Thanks for the code ^^.

[Drex]

Classic political move. Steal from one group of poor, claiming they are rich, and give to another, larger group of poor. Grocery stores are barely profitable in good times: those markets have probably been operating at big losses since the crisis. They are just trying to stay in business until things get better. Guess what happens if they go bankrupt? Not only do the employees and owners join the poor and hungry, but the creditors (presumably banks) take ownership. You think banks are going to re-open the doors of an unprofitable business? Way to go, Robin Hood.

Yes, it is a disgrace that in 2012 people cannot get food. It's even more disgraceful that the people who took the money are the ones still wiggling their jowls.

It's horrible, but Spain is in terrible condition. Their government lost all of its credibility. Stunts like this do more harm than good. Everyone is pulling their money out of the banks and running. All of the bailout money given to the banks will be withdrawn by depositors.

On topic: I don't know how much the guy gets paid, but he should just spend his own damn money

He should, but all the money the Spanish politicians took from the people is probably tucked away in foreign accounts outside the EU. He probably only keeps enough euros around to pay his usual expenses.

The idea of towns not paying their loan payments and stopping enforcement of bank forclosures might be a little closer to the right course of action to protect the citizens from greedy banks.

I wouldn't blame it on greed. The ECB has a very strong incentive to keep the EU together: with no EU there is no ECB. Those greedy banks are the only ones preventing Spain from going 100% austerity mode tomorrow. Can't run a 6%-of-GDP deficit without borrowing, and no one else is lending to Spain. Everyone has pulled their money out of Spain except for the ECB. And the taxpayers in Germany and France are on the hook for every cent that goes to Greece, Spain, Italy, etc. The ECB does not have the political will to give out money as charity.

[Rhyis.]

Wouldn't it be Zorro? Being Spanish and all.

[Mugekuge]

I am curious how Spain will be in next 5 years, their unemployment is going up, probably will be at 24-25% next year and for youngs looking for first time job is like 50% unemployment.

Wonder if stuff keep going downhill could be a social meltdown?, both big parties (PP and PSOE) are out of credibility, would this crisis give more support for nacionalism separation like Catalunya and Euskadi?

[Dimmauk]

[URL="http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/08/16/13310581-spains-robin-hood-mayor-on-march-sparks-outrage-after-supermarket-heists?lite"]Insert whatever name you want here[/URL] 

Translates into
Insert whatever name you want here


On topic: I don't know how much the guy gets paid, but he should just spend his own damn money rather than steal from supermarkets unless his problem was with the supermarkets themselves (hint: it's not). I don't know how far his immunity stretches, but he'd get his point across a lot better if he staged a bank heist (thus taking it out on the banks) and then actually paid for the food.

Why the hell does the mayor have immunity anyway? The only immunity I was aware of was diplomatic immunity, which I thought only applied to foreign diplomats, not domestic ones.

If that happened in America, his diplomatic immunity...... "it's just been revoked!"

[Salodin]

If that happened in America, his diplomatic immunity...... "it's just been revoked!"

God, was waiting for some one to do it lmao.

[Yugl]

If that happened in America, his diplomatic immunity...... "it's just been revoked!"