WHY SPAIN HAS BECOME THE BUTLINS OF THE CRIMINAL FRATERNITY

Until such time as the Spanish government makes a serious effort to bring its laws into line with the rest of the EU, Spain will, I'm afraid continue to be tha criminal's favourite workplace. In,fact even as I write more and more "petty" criminals are pouring through the frontiers (thanks to Schengen this is now childsplay) whether by bus from the north east or by air from other parts. Pickpockets, bagsnatchers,shoplifters, conmen and a long and large etc. are now here to make our lives a complete misery with the tacit consent of the Spanish government. And the reason? In just one word el HURTO.
According to Simon and Schuster's English- Spanish dictionary, The verb Robar means to steal or thieve and the verb Hurtar means to steal or thieve so why oh why are these two sinonimous verbs treated so diferently by the Spanish judicial system? If violence is involved or quantities of a value of more than 400 euros are taken, then that is considered as ROBO and the culprit (if caught) will be tried and, if found guilty, punished by the traditional methods,i.e. fines community service or imprisonment as the judge sees fit. In this aspect, Spanish laws are no different to the rest of Europe's.( With one important and to my mind ludicrous diference...If the guilty person is sentenced to two years or less jail and has NO PREVIOUS CONVICTIONS, he or she will NOT have to serve that sentence.although it will be taken into account in the case of re-offenders.) No room here therefore for the "short sharp shock" treatment handed out , in many cases succesfully by British judges where many an adolescent has been put back "on the rails" after a three month taste of prison porridge and slopping out.
However, if your pocket is picked as you travel to work or your bag gets stolen from the restaurant, if your money and clothes are nicked from your towel while you enjoy a dip in the warm sea or ,when you get back to your car there's a window broken, and the radio's gone. THAT'S HURTO.If your shop gets its stock reduced by shoplifters or your garden shed is relieved of you black and deckers, that's HURTO If you've just popped down the shop for a kilo of spuds and when you come back your laptop's disappeared then there's little or no point in phoning the police because that's HURTO. IN SPAIN; HURTO IS NOT A CRIME even though you, the victim, have just lost some of you most prized posessions, it is not a crime. I will try to explain.
Resorting once more to my overworked and afforementioned dictionary, the word CRIMEN translates CRIME. I bet you can't guess the meaning of the word DELITO. Yes, that's right the translation of the word DELITO is CRIME Yet, for some inexplicable reason HURTO is not a crime but a delito which means that it will NEVER come before a judge of any kind and NO PUNISHMENT will ever be given. If you are caught for having committed a delito you will be taken to the police station, identified,fingerprinted, your records will be checked to see if you are on the wanted list anywhere in the world and then, after a short time, you will be BACK ON THE STREET and that is the end of it.No fine No prison no deportation. YOU ARE SCOTT FREE TO GO AND COMMIT ANOTHER HURTO.There have been cases of pickpockets being arrested three and even four times in one day. There are people walking around free who have been pulled in hundreds of times for this kind of offence and nothing ever happens to them.Small wonder then that this country is filling up with the underworld scum of the entire world.Where would you prefer to steal a wallet; in Bucharest where you would risk a year's hard labour in an archaic unheated prison left over from the communist regime; in Islaamic countries where you could lose your hand in a public place or here in sunny Spain with its lovely climate where it doesn't matter?
From here I would like to cry out for an immediate change in the law. STEALING is STEALING and if the governing body of this country don't understand that simple fact I will lend them my dictionary.