About the referendum it is indeed ilegal, as anyone that knows spanish law and constitution do inmediately realize. It was the Judges and not the government who sent the police to seize the ballot boxes.
Illegal or not, you shouldn't beat your own people for: a) Peacefully protesting. b) Voting.
I do completely agree. AFAIK noone was beaten for that (trying to vote or peacefully protesting). Police had strict orders from Judge to seize ballot boxes, the only people that were beaten were actively hindering (not sure if that is the right english word) the police job. In fact, in most the places they were not able to comply orders because it would have mean a major confrontation and put people (and police units themselves) in higher danger. It was an extremely complex operative, probably the most complex this country has ever coped with.
I do also recognize this incident have had a very bad impact in international media. It would have been way better to have intervened way sooner and just arrest the promoters of the rebelion without exposing any law-abiding citizens to any innecesary risk.
What possible motivation could there be for removing someones freedom of expression by using law?
It is acceptable that a government may take a different view to a sub set of it's people, but it is not acceptable that a government denies those people from expressing themselves in a peaceful way,
It is a common misunderstanding that freedom of expression is an unlimited freedom. It isn't. You can't publish clearly racist manifests, etc...
But this is not a matter of free speech. It is a matter of breaking the law.
Expressing anything (not ilegal) in a peaceful way is ok.
Who has said/or done anything against that?
Lol, the only thing they expressed in a peaceful way is their desire to separate from Spain. Which was promptly declared illegal and hence the following violence. Also, I do not think they expressed or published racist manifests... .
YOu are right, they didn't (mostly) it was just an example that even freedom of expression has limits but, as I said, this is not a matter of freedom of expression.
The "violence" you are referring to was the outcome of police following an order from the Judges to seize the ballot boxes of an illegal "referendum". No videos I have seen show the people peacefully cooperating with law enforment on their task, on the contrary you can clearly see people actively obstructing the judicial mandate.
Anyone has the right to express their desire to separate from Spain or anything else that is not clearly ilegal (as blatant racism as an example) but NOONE has the right to be above the law and obstruct law enforcement in a task that has been ordered by the Judges. I don't think that is allowed anywhere in the world.
That said... I would have put all this shitshow to an end way sooner going directly for the promoters of the rebellion. It is sad and very unfortunate things let go up to this point.