Vida Justa announces demonstration in Lisbon to demand “justice” for the death of Odair Moniz
The Vida Justa movement announced a demonstration in Marquês de Pombal, in Lisbon, to demand justice for the death of Odair Moniz, the 43-year-old man shot by police after a police chase in Amadora.
“Without Justice there is no peace” is the motto of the demonstration that will begin at 3pm next Saturday in Marquês de Pombal, in Lisbon, organized by the Movimento Vida Justa, family and friends of Odair Moniz, associations of residents of the Zambujal neighborhood, where the victim lived in, and other neighborhoods in the Metropolitan Region of São Paulo.
“It is necessary to do justice and condemn the death of Odair Moniz by the police. Unfortunately, it is not a unique case. There are too many dead in our communities. We need to end violence and police impunity in neighborhoods. People need to stop being treated as non-citizens who can be attacked and killed”, reads the note published on the movement’s official page on social media.
The Vida Justa movement also states that it is necessary to “end Sensitive Urban Zones (ZUS) that place neighborhoods under militarized intervention”, because “poverty and ethnicity cannot be criminalized” and “security in communities can only be achieved for social peace and the guarantee of justice”.
“Our neighborhoods need more public equipment, better work, public services in good condition, satisfactory transport and decent housing, they do not need police violence”, adds the Vida Justa movement, which calls for everyone’s participation in Saturday’s “peaceful demonstration”, at Marquês de Pombal, in Lisbon.
Odair Moniz, 43 years old and resident of Bairro do Zambujal, in Amadora, was shot by a PSP agent in the early hours of Monday, in Bairro da Cova da Moura, in the same municipality, and died shortly afterwards, at Hospital São Francisco Xavier, in Lisbon.
According to the PSP, the man “ran away” in a car after seeing a police vehicle and “got into trouble” in Cova da Moura, where, when approached by the agents, “he resisted arrest and tried to attack them with the use of a bladed weapon”.
The SOS Racismo association and the Vida Justa movement contested the police version and demanded a “serious and impartial” investigation to determine “all responsibilities”, considering that “a culture of impunity” in the police is at stake.
The General Inspectorate of Internal Administration opened an urgent investigation and the PSP also announced an internal investigation, while the agent who shot the man was named a defendant.
Since Monday night, there have been riots in Zambujal and, since Tuesday, in other neighborhoods in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, where buses, cars and rubbish bins were burned. More than a dozen people were arrested, the driver of a bus suffered serious burns and two police officers received hospital treatment, with some citizens also suffering minor injuries.
