PSP police “gathering social media commentary that incites hatred and violence”
With a policy of ‘zero tolerance’ of disturbances hitting outer Lisbon areas since Monday, the PSP police’s latest report is that in the last 24 hours there have been a total of 18 incidents of urban furniture being set on fire, “mostly rubbish bins”, in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, as well as two police vehicles and a bus being stoned.
In a statement released today, the force said that the 18 incidents of arson were recorded in the municipalities of Almada, Amadora, Seixal, Setúbal and Sintra – noting that an ecopoint (for recycling bins) was also set on fire in the city of Leiria (miles away from the centre of recent actions).
Contrary to previous reports, the police did not report any people arrested or identified in this context.
In their latest update on public disorder that has followed the police shooting of Odair Moniz in Cova da Moura in the early hours of Monday morning, the force added that beyond the cases of arson, there have been “two police vehicles stoned, a bus stoned, two firecrackers set off, a pyrotechnic device thrown into a PSP police station and other acts of vandalism, including graffiti” in the 24-hours since the previous press briefing.
In this context, the PSP reinforced the warning that all sharing on social networks that incite hatred and violence “are situations that constitute criminal offences and are being collected and preserved in order to be reported to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, so anyone who commits acts of this nature could be held criminally responsible”.
Lusa
