4F case
The 4F case concerns the events of 4 February 2006 in Barcelona, in which a policeman patrolling outside a rave was paralyzed after being hit by a falling object and nine people were arrested in consequence.
The film was viewed over 500,000 times when screened on Catalan television, which then created a further debate both about the case and more general issues such as police violence and gentrification in Barcelona.
On the night of Saturday, 4 February (4F) 2006, a rave was happening at the Anarkopenya squat at 55 Calle Sant Pere Mès Baix in the Ciutat Vella district of Barcelona.
[4] The police began to arrest people on the street including three men of Latin American ancestry with European passports, namely Alex Cisternas, Rodrigo Lanza and Juan Pintos.
[5] Soon after Heras had committed suicide in 2011, Xavier Artigas and Xapo Ortega met at the beginning of the 15M movement at Plaça de Catalunya and decided to make a short film commemorating her life.
[7] After the directors mentioned the testimony of an anonymous witness who knew who the person who had thrown the projectile and could testify that it was not any of the people convicted, calls were made to re-open the case.
The city council asked the public prosecutor to watch the film to see if the case should be reopened, a motion supported by Cs, ERC, ICV and Guanyem Barcelona.
[13][14] The 4F case and Ciutat Morta generated a lengthy public debate, which broadened from the voicing of concerns regarding the innocence of those convicted into a discussion about the moral state of the city of Barcelona.
[2] As part of the gentrification of Barcelona, Mayor Joan Clos had introduced the Plan for the Promotion of Civic Virtues which penalised behaviours such as begging, skateboarding, public urination and prostitution.
[7] The 4F case challenged this discourse and an investigation by journalists from La Directa which accompanied the film Ciutat Morta noted that it was curious that a building owned by the city council of Barcelona, which was in a residential area and had been occupied purely for raves without a connection to the political squatting movement, had been tolerated for several years without being evicted.
[5] Under a new administration led by Ada Colau, the city council of Barcelona pledged to make a new behavioural code for the Guàrdia Urbana which would encompass video surveillance in all custody areas and the right for arrestees to see a doctor unaccompanied by an officer.
