“The State will have to listen to us”: in the Zambujal neighborhood, police abuses are reported and the disrespect “is set to continue”
They are, above all, indignant young people, who do not intend to have their identities revealed, for fear of reprisals. They admit there was a plan. They attracted the police to the Monday night ambushafter the death of friend Odair Moniz.
“What we did was pull the crates into the middle, so as not to burn down buildings, so as not to burn down the cars of people who have nothing to do with this, who work in their daily lives”, says a resident of the neighborhood.
“The objective was to attract attention. We are still Portuguese citizens. We have rights and duties that must be fulfilled. And they don’t value us and even disrespect us. There is discrimination and racial prejudice. We are tired”, he admits.
So that there is “change in the future”
They say not be afraid of “losing your reason”by promoting the riots.
“Because there will be another one in a few months. If I can die for one, or two, or three, but there is some change in the future, I accept that.”
Edgar Cabral, vice-president of the Neighborhood Association of Zambujal, accuses the police of, after shooting, just looking at Odair Moniz’s body, without placing him in a “safe position”. “We see here a carelessness, a “not wanting to know””censorship.
“It was the death of a big brother, a family man, due to police abuse and police negligence.”
“It could have been me”
Images circulating on social media serve as a trigger for popular anger. Residents remember their friend fondly and deny the police version.
“What I see is a friend of mine lying on the ground, shot. A person I have never seen have an aggressive attitude towards anyone”, laments another resident of the neighborhood.
“I think we need answers to all these questions: why was he shot? How did he end up there? Was there a chase?” he asks, ensuring that the victim was not usually armed and that the car he was driving was not stolen.
“This makes me think it could have been me. It could have been me in this place”, he says.
“If we let it go unnoticed, in a month another one will die”
They complain about successive abuses of authority.
“A few years ago, they put my head in the toilet at the Alfragide police station. They asked: “So, have you already been baptized?”, says one of the neighborhood residents. “They put my head in the toilet, their knee on my neck and flushed the toilet. Since that day, I have never slept well again”, he says.
Os clashes in the Zambujal neighborhood, residents promise, are to continue. “If not now, if we let this go unnoticed, in a month or a year, another one will die and there will be another police abuse”, they say.
“Sitting just crying, mourning the loss of a brother, it doesn’t work. The State has to listen to us. You’re going to have to listen to us anyway.”
