The people being assaulted by the armed and armoured police are protesting about the financial crisis in Spain and elsewhere and what it will mean for Catalan society to deal with the consequences of the Euro collapse. Evidently a tent city had just been forcibly dismantled and the people were sitting to prevent municipal cleaning trucks leaving Plaza de Cataluna.

The police behaviour shown here is disgusting to me. It is not just the fact that peaceful people are being attacked. The most disturbing thing to me is that the malice is being doled out by the police in such a calculated manner. This looks to me like incitement to riot and I wonder to what extent this is a conscious tactic?

Young people in Europe are often derided for not being interested in politics. Solutions like allowing voting by SMS are the kind of thing that gets touted as potential solutions. You know 'cause kids are down with their phones like.

These young people are very engaged with politics though, but not in the manner of previous generations who just sat back and took the crap they were fed. These people are angry enough to sleep on the street to try to find a voice in a crucial time for their country and they are being confronted with a stark metaphor for what their country thinks of their opinions.