Publicacin: MD24TUE Seccin: Home News

Pgina: Pgina 6 Edicin: MDaily

25/06/2014 19:36h Usuario: hcarter

HOME NEWS

editorial@majorcadailybulletin.es

MAJORCA DAILY BULLETIN

TUESDAY, JUNE 24, 2014

Carnation sellers warn: Let us

steal in Calvia and Palma or we
will do it elsewhere on the island
A police crackdown on
carnation sellers in
Calvia and Palma is
working to such an extent the women have
now warned they will
move elsewhere on
the island to continue
their illicit activities if
the police do not ease
up.
by FRANCISCO CORTEZ
Palma. If you dont let us
robhereinCalviaorinPalma
we will have to move and go
elsewhere,butwemustfeed
our children and what we
will not do is stop, one of
the women said yesterday.
The National Police, Local
PoliceandGuardiaCivilhave
been working together to
put an end to the on going
problemof womenpretending to sell flowers in order to
tricktourists,picktheirpockets and sometimes even blatantly rob supermarkets in
the area.
The move is proving to be
successful, so much so the

women are now backed into

a corner, raising a whole different issue. The problem
now seems to be how to contain the situation and avoid
the women from taking
theiractivitieselsewhereon
the island.
Thesetypesofcrimesarealmost a daily occurrence in
the major tourist areas and
Puerto Andraitx and sAluet
in particular have been under the spotlight lately.
Police have increased their
patrols in the area but the
number of petty crimes reportedover thelastfewdays
has increased, both on the
streetsandinlocalsupermarkets.
Agents from the police
havemanagedtocatchsome
of the carnation sellers in action, with suspects usually
being cordially invited to
leave the municipality.
Asignificantnumberofcarnationsellers fromRomania
havealsobeenspottedinthe
area of late.
Their main target are the
tourists. The most recent

case was when police forces

caught ayoungmanstealing
the wallet of a German tourist.
A few minutes later the
same youngster was already
trying to extract money
from a local cash machine,
raising questions about how
police forces could let the
man go free to commit a secondoffenseinthefirstplace.
A night patrol from
Andraitxs Local Police also
revealed yesterday that during a routine patrol in the
area they managed to find
over a dozen grams of cocaine under the seat of a car.
With the Summer season
now in full flow, and the
number of tourists arriving
on the island rising every
day, police forces in Calvia
and all over the island have
problems to resolve.
The main question here
must be why are perpetrators allowed to go free only
minutes after being caught,
and what kind of message
does that send out to residents and visitors?

Number of Catholic weddings

slumps in Majorca
Palma.Every year there
are less catholic weddings,
baptisms and First Communions in Majorca, according to a report published yesterday.
The number of weddings
has slumped by 200 from
2011 to 2013 (888 compared
with last years 688).
First Communions declined from 4,310 to 3,914
in the space of two years as
well.
During that period the
number of baptisms has
also gone down by over
1,000.
In 2011 4,340 baptisms
were performed compared
with the 3,449 of last year.
Figures are nonetheless
similar to the other 68
Spanish dioceses, confirming the problem is not geographical but relating to
other issues, financial or a

MDaily

decline in faith in the

Catholic church.
An article published recently in magazine, Ecclesia,
confirms the church hierarchy is aware of the decline
in figures over the past few
years and explained one of
the reasons as to why it is
happening.

In a slow but progressive

way, and in some cases worringly so, Spanish society is
going through a secularisation process.
The situation is widespread and growing specially amongst the younger
generations, the magazine
read.

Police in action in Andraitx closely watched by a group of carnation sellers.