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Police action in Bemformoso was reportedly planned following statements from residents and the mayor himself. PSP says that “there have already been much more muscular operations” at the location. Montenegro is “stunned” by criticism of the government.
Miguel Coelho, president of the Junta de Santa Maria Maior (PS), the location in the historic center of Lisbon where the police operation took place, which last week requested police action in that area in September, reports .
“Even the washers at the parish council are often confronted with criminals who don’t want them to wash the streets, because hide the drugs under the rocks“, commented Miguel Coelho, asking for action from the government, police and City Hall.
These statements, added to those of 30 to 40 residents, all made in athe public session of local residents, in September, in which victims of crimes occurring in that location reported what they saw, which triggered PSP action.
“This police operation is the result of an extensive analysis of complaints and participation, reported by the offended parties,” the National Directorate of the PSP told Expresso.
The PSP handed over to the Public Ministry, after this public meeting, data on the occurrence of 52 crimes committed with bladed weapons in almost two years in three locations: Rua do Benformoso, Largo do Martim Moniz and Largo de São Domingos, all of them in the parish of Santa Maria Maior.
The Lisbon Department of Investigation and Criminal Action validated the police operation, but, a source guarantees to the express, “there was no interference or influence from the Government” in the operation itself.
“The operation was not limited to the immigrant community and has nothing to do with the persecution of ethnic minorities. You two detainees have Portuguese nationality“, says a source close to the PSP management.
However, Expresso points out that most of the knife attacks in that area were carried out by elements of the Hindu community.
In relation to those that have fallen on the PSP and the government, the same source rejects them, guaranteeing that “there have been better-structured operationsnamely in which the PSP supported the SEF, both in Martim Moniz and Quinta da Fonte, Musgueira or several neighborhoods in Amadora”.
Montenegro “astonished, very perplexed” by criticism
“I must confess that I am astonished, very perplexed, by the reactions that have appeared in the public discussion regarding the State’s effort to guarantee people’s tranquility. In ensuring a prevention of criminal conduct and guarantee the full integration of our immigrants”, guaranteed this Friday morning Luís Montenegro, quoted by .
“I absolutely think inappropriate to consider actions of a preventive naturepolice, in localized contexts, where there is a recent history of repeated crime as an expression of extremist governance”, added the prime minister, referring to the criticism he received from Pedro Nuno Santos, socialist leader.
“Security is neither right nor left“, but rather “a good for the person and society” that, therefore, “should be preserved”.
“It is not a political idea from the point of view of thought, but a political idea from the point of view of interest of the basis of the regimeso that everyone can think the way they want”, says the prime minister.
