
Last weekend, police officers had to intervene in a mass brawl between minors mostly happened in Spain Squarein Santa Cruz de Tenerife, where two young people were arrested.
That same Saturday, some young people tried to steal the bag of a client who was on the terrace of Atlantis Bar-Restaurant, located in the same area of the capital of Tenerife. Fortunately, between a waiter, another client and the owner of the establishment, Airam Afonso, they managed to reduce it. Although the latter received a kick in the boy’s mouth while he tried to get away.
Afonso has recognized before the microphones of COPE Canary Islands that for a few months insecurity has increased in the Santa Cruz area: “There is a very big problem in this area. At the end of the 90s there was some problem, neighborhoods were cited against each other to fight, but the Local Police did a good job and made Santa Cruz much safer; now, the situation has changed, because there are two generations of children who have turned 18 and have not been able to go out to party”.
Along with that, he points to migrant minors protected by the autonomous community who are staying in hotels in the city, “who have been held for one or two years and who want to carve out a future to send money to their family; with so much leisure time, it is normal that they end up stealing to get some money”.
For his part, the client who also prevented the theft, Andrés de la Vega, assures that the majority of those involved in these massive fights are Canarians: “I can understand that the boys have been locked up for two years -due to the pandemic-, but the atmosphere It has become very rare”.
For the owner of Atlantis Bar-Restaurant, “people who don’t go out at night have gotten together with those who do; before you used to leave the club and you could meet someone, but now you have Santa Cruz full at twelve at night. If you had all the people concentrated inside a venue, as the nightlife businessmen ask, things would be much more controlled, but in the end, day after day, problems are created.