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Almost a month on from the police operation in Martim Moniz that so outraged left wing parties and immigrant associations, thousands of people have taken to the streets today in protest.<\/p>\n
Reports describe \u201cpolitical activists, migrants and anonymous citizens\u201d \u2013 but the photographs attest to the majority of those present.<\/p>\n
This is an issue that has ground on, relentlessly, since the operation in Rua do Benformoso, in spite of attempts to \u2018play the whole thing down\u2019: \u00a0SIC television news, for instance, carried a report to show that police operations of the same type \u201cgo back years\u201d; the country\u2019s Internal Security Observatory also said that it could see nothing illegal or wrong having taken place; the government, naturally, said this was a matter for the police, and that they too could only support it. But none of it has assuaged the left, immigrant associations and activists.<\/p>\n
Slogans today included those attributed to \u2018activists of the Left Bloc\u2019, who chanted: \u201cFascists, \u00a0fascists, your time has come, the immigrants stay and you go away\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe demonstration surprised many\u201d, the state news agency continued \u2013 referring possibly to the numbers involved, which it put at 15,000 (SIC Not\u00edcias\u2019 evening news increased this number to 50,000). But it will also have surprised for the extraordinary wealth of diversity in the capital.<\/p>\n
Lusa\u2019s reports describes Amina, a Syrian immigrant, at the front of the demonstration, who has lived in Portugal for three years and says \u201cshe has never experienced discrimination, unlike in the UK, where she lived.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou really feel the racism there. I have never felt it here. But I live in Lisbon, I am white and I am educated,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
According to lawyer Ricardo S\u00e1 Fernandes, also among the demonstrators:\u201cThe Portuguese are sending a signal here that they do not agree with any discrimination. We are all together,\u201d he said, considering that political polarisation was not evident this afternoon, in spite of the fact that members of far-right groups were holding a counter action nearby, in support of the country\u2019s police forces.<\/p>\n
Lusa\u2019s report certainly was focused on the views of protestors, a number of whom were concerned about what they see as \u201ca shift to the right in Portugal\u201d and as such, a shift away from traditional values of tolerance.<\/p>\n
That said, the demo managed to attract \u201815,000\u2019\/ 50,000 (depending on which news report one reads), while the action in support of police, organised by the right, didn\u2019t manage anything even close to that number.\u00a0<\/p>\n
With police on heightened alert in order to ensure order was kept at all times, perhaps the most telling detail about this afternoon came from the president of Santa Maria Maior parish council Miguel Coelho, who has always labelled the police action on December 19 as unacceptable, but who declined to take part in today\u2019s demo, because he believes it was \u201csponsored by many populist radicals, left-wing Wokists\u201d, who, he feared, would try to turn the event \u201cinto an attack on the police, particularly the PSP. And I can\u2019t agree with that\u201d.<\/p>\n
Writing over Facebook, Coelho stressed that his parish needs more policing; there is too much crime, but crime \u201ccuts across all races, ethnicities, creeds and social groups. It\u2019s not an immigration problem\u201d.<\/p>\n
In short, Portugal needs \u201ca prestigious PSP, which defends the Constitution, is close to the citizens, has authority and is better protected legally from the insults, threats and attacks that are made against its officers on a daily basis\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Put another way, the country does not need 15,000 people (or even 50,000) marching through the streets vilifying police, who, as Coelho adds, need to be better paid as well.<\/p>\n
MNA\/<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n