George Floyd by the Tagus

It was Lisbon’s great upheaval: the widest, fiercest turmoil the Portuguese capital had seen in many decades. The chaos began in the early hours of October 22nd, when Odair Moniz, a 43-year-old Cape Verdean with an extensive criminal record—long known to authorities for drug trafficking, armed robberies, and other crimes—was shot dead by a 20-year-old police officer in Cova da Moura, one of the most perilous immigrant neighborhoods in greater Lisbon. At the time, Moniz was fleeing from the officers. The circumstances of the affair are still being investigated, though a series of messy, conflicting reports by police leadership have done little to clarify the truth of the matter.

Of course, the truth has never been worth much to those with large microphones and power over public opinion. Like that of George Floyd in the United States, Moniz’ death was promptly blamed, not just on the two policemen who had attempted to arrest him, but on racism—not just their own, but on that of the police and, indeed, of Portuguese society in general. This is despite the fact that there has been no proper investigation yet, and—perhaps more importantly—that there was certainly nothing to suggest that what happened was anything more than meets the eye. 

The officer in question may, after all, have felt the need to defend himself in a markedly hostile and gang-ridden neighbourhood. Too young, barely trained, absurdly thrown at one of Portugal’s most demanding policing environments, the officer may, by miscalculation, have fired his weapon only to immobilise the suspect while inadvertently killing him. That certainly seems the likeliest scenario. The Polícia Judiciária’s final report, of course, may shed more light on precisely what happened. What is known for the moment is that Odair, contrary to the media’s preferred narrative, was anything but an exemplary citizen. 

The incident sparked brutal outrage in the capital’s unruly suburbs. Greater Lisbon is home to hundreds of thousands of men and women of African heritage, many of whom are impoverished. Understandably, many feel bitter about what can feel like an unchangeable lot in life. This bitterness and lack of opportunity, too often combined with linguistic exclusion, has provided fertile ground for the socially destructive creed of wokeness. Generously sponsored by the state, a wide plethora of collectives and NGOs has for years ‘evangelised’ these quarters with the gospel of division and resentment. That poison has now produced its inevitable result.

The Moniz clashes have far more to do with that underlying process than with the death—unfortunate as it may be—of a man at the hands of a freshman police officer. The fire that has now come to engulf most the Portuguese capital for five consecutive nights, leading to anarchy not only in the city’s most troubled areas but also, even, in well-to-do streets, is as much to be blamed on the criminals themselves as on those who have been preparing this deluge of chaos from behind the scenes. These include elected politicians, the institutional far Left in parliament and the academy, and the constellation of the self-proclaimed ‘anti-racist’ collectives that increasingly attempt to serve as public relations for thuggery and organised crime.

Indeed, those behind this conspiracy against public peace did little to conceal their glee. Despite successive shootings, the throwing of stones and Molotov cocktails at police officers, and generalised arson—several dozen cars and buses were torched by the gangs—the left-wing media remained unanimous in its cowardly exaltation of the faux Portuguese Floyd. This indignity reached its paroxysm when yet another bus was attacked, its passengers stabbed by the mob—though ‘without gravity,’ as the media then argued—and its driver left inside to be burned alive. The poor man, who only miraculously survived, remains at Santa Maria Hospital and is in critical condition. He will likely never recover from his injuries. Unlike Mr. Moniz, ‘Tiago,’ the bus driver, is indisputably innocent of any wrongdoing. Yet, even as establishment politicians rise in silence to pay tribute to a criminally convicted man shot in thus far unknown circumstances, none seemed to care much about the now brutally maimed Tiago. Unfortunately, he happened to be the wrong type of victim, attacked by the wrong type of aggressors. So the propaganda machine simply pushed him aside.

At the same time, in Amadora and Portela, two other areas in the outskirts of Lisbon, police officers were stoned, police vehicles were damaged, rubbish bins were set on fire, journalists were threatened with knives, journalists’ vehicles were stolen and destroyed, and an attempt was made to set fire to a petrol station. Men were seen walking about with swords. An innocent woman and her baby child were wounded after their home was set on fire. 

Those responsible for the riots made sure to hide their identities with hoods and masks—they are now not easy to identify. Only about half a dozen offenders were intercepted by the police and brought before the courts. Though the opposition Socialists foolishly accuse Portugal’s weak centrist government of a turn to the hard right, extreme leniency, rather, remains the rule: those detained were freed, with courts merely forbidding them from the use of lighters. Incredibly, SIC, one of Portugal’s major television broadcasters, went as far as inviting the leader of these rioters—effectively a terrorist capo—to address the country from a hidden location while hiding himself under a mask. 

And, while the victims still lingered in hospital, the Left brought thousands to march against racism, allegations that none could prove or convincingly substantiate. Speaking at the event, Trotskyite MP Fabian Figueiredo went as far as claiming that perhaps the disbandment of the police itself should be considered. Instead, he suggested, policing responsibilities would be better guaranteed by “the communities” themselves—for Lisbon’s most problematic neighbourhoods, that would mean the privatisation of state coercion to the local crime lords. Such is the Left’s vision for Portugal: the breakup of the state, the imposition of gang feudalism, and, ultimately, the glorification of chaos.

For the Portuguese—if not their government—the tragic events of the last couple of days will serve as a dramatic wake-up call. That their generosity has been abused is now all too clear. But, more importantly, the continual spread of bastions of anomie, uprootedness, cultural sedition, and crime has now become a public threat of the highest degree: not merely to collective tranquility, but, more profoundly, to the very preservation of the state in its Bodinian meaning—as the ultimate keeper of sovereign power. Hard as it will be, the authorities must regain genuine control over these forsaken areas, smash the yoke of gang dominance, segregationist Woke ideology, and lout culture, and reintegrate those who wish to be reintegrated into the bosom of national life. For those who do not, the adoption of the Swedish model can provide a solution for the community as well as for the individuals concerned. Sooner rather than later, that is a debate Portugal will have to be ready for.