“Are you a police officer?”: on the third night of tension in Cova da Moura, there was fear, fire, lasers, batons, handcuffs and a funk rehearsal

One very light red crosses the field of vision, three trash cans on fire at one of the doors of Cova da Moura, a graffiti blue Martin Luther King sign at the entrance. A mouse runs across the facade of the Amadora Public Security Police station.

Two vans from the intervention brigade start up and set up an operations center at the Timor Lorosae roundabout. Agents armed with shotguns, plastic shields, hats, batons, anti-bullet vests. Four pairs of police officers control the entrances and exits of the roundabout: “They throw very lights e cocktails molotovs 200 meters from here”, they warn.