A thousand and one excuses to remove the mask

Rosario, retired, walks with a friend along the Antonio Banderas promenade, east of the city of Malaga. She wants her gesture to go unnoticed, but the two local police officers clearly see how the woman takes a mask out of a red bag and sneakily puts it on. As she approaches the police, her path deviates to the point where she pretends to enter a restaurant. "Ma'am, ma'am, wait a minute. Do you know that you must always wear a mask ”, says the officer Puentes Soler. "Oh, if I come from the beach," he excuses himself and shows the agent some photos to show that hours before he was wearing it. “I come from… I am going to… I just left… these are the excuses we hear over and over again,” says agent Ángel, who prefers not to give his last name. Both belong to one of the police forces that fined the most in Spain for the absence of a mask: 3,295 sanctions since Andalusia imposed its obligation on July 15.

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• How Spain's face mask rules are being broken

The Malaga agents are instructed to give priority to monitoring the use of the mask and compliance with the safety distance, as well as the control of crowds. Malaga exceeds 150 daily penalties, but Valencia exceeds it with just over 200, reports Ferran Bono. Zaragoza is close with about 120 a day. In Bilbao and Vitoria the figure is around 150 a week, as in Ceuta, while in Barcelona it is around 100 a week, according to data from the Guardia Urbana. In Seville, there are weekend nights where they exceed 60. The situation is similar throughout the Spanish geography since the communities forced, one after another, its use, except in the Canary Islands.

For Aarón Cano, Councilor for Citizen Security of the Valencia City Council, the data is "proof that respect for covid-19 has been lost." "It is an act as simple as putting on the mask on the street, it is not complicated," laments the mayor. Many municipalities have launched campaigns to raise awareness about the use of this piece of cloth, which may be key to controlling the pandemic.

The numbers may seem high, but they are small after a simple observation. This is what happens walking just 50 meters along the beach of La Misericordia de Málaga. A minute after warning Rosario, the agents run into a group of French tourists. There are three girls and three boys, they are around 20 years old and only one wears the mask. One of the girls claims, in French, that she has a drink in her hand. Another, who is smoking. The others bow their heads, hand over their identification and listen to the pedagogical explanations of the policemen. Immediately afterwards, the patrol warns a Madrid family that their adolescent son does not have protection on. The scene relaxes when the agents disappear from the scene: a girl in a bikini rides a scooter with her face uncovered, just like a young man typing on his mobile near the traffic light. Three women, carrying an umbrella, a hammock and towels, but not a mask, cross the pedestrian crossing. "We live there, it is not necessary," they justify.

Walking with a bottle in hand is the perfect excuse for not wearing a mask. "They tell you they're drinking, even though they've been with her for an hour." Sport is another great justification: those who walk along the promenade say not to wear it because they are doing physical activity, "when it is clearly seen that they are not doing it." There are also those who wear a scarf or a T-shirt to cover their nose and mouth.

Citizen complaints

Other times the agents go to the calls made by the citizens to room 092. "There were never so many notices," says agent Ángel, who before meeting with EL PAÍS had to go to a bakery because someone reported that the clerk did not carry protection. Other times it is restaurant customers who report to report waiters who do not carry it either, to beach bars with tables too close together or places that exceed their capacity. There are times that everything remains in warning, but in others the sanction comes, of 100 euros. "Especially to those who directly do not wear a mask or get cool saying they do not use it because they do not feel like it," says another police officer.

The experience of the Malaga local police since the mask is mandatory is that the main group that does not use it is among those who are 15 and 25 years old. They clearly observe it on weekends, where they constantly dissolve bottles or large groups on the beach. Nightlife is another key sector, as shown by the continuous complaints from neighbors. Many kids are left in large groups - of up to 100 people - in places where they think the agents do not reach: urbanizations in the mountains, wastelands far from everything, uninhabited areas.

"There are many casuistry and it is impossible for us to be everywhere," adds a deputy inspector. "But of course, there are still thefts, sexist violence, traffic accidents, alcohol ... and we do not give for more." Every morning they patrol the Malaga capital, with 600,000 inhabitants, barely 120 local policemen. "The message that should get through is that the use of a mask should not be entrusted to police pressure: it is a matter of individual responsibility that is for the benefit of the whole of society," concludes another agent, who simply asks for empathy and common sense .

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