In the comments section of last night’s post, Afonso Henriquetrs posted three translations of articles describing cultural enrichment incidents, taken from the Portuguese media. He notes that all of them happened in the last ten days:
A gang attacked ten couples at night in Caparica:
Gang of Brazilians beat and robbed couples dating at the Beach of Costa da Caparica
The girls were forced to remain seated inside the car; the boys were forced outside, pushed to their knees with their heads down. If they moved, they were assaulted in the head with pistols and revolvers. All this while the three robbers stole everything they could. It has been so the last two weeks on the beaches of Caparica, Almada, with ten couples caught dating at night.
It all ended yesterday, with two illegal Brazilians and one Portuguese, car repairmen in Almada, imprisoned by the National Republican Guard (GNR).
Next, an excerpt from a newspaper article posted on a blog. Afonso notes:
Keep in mind that “arrastão” derives from the verb “arrastar” meaning “to drag”. “Arrastão” is a big mob of criminals going over its targets and dragging all as they pass, robbing what they can, beating if they want.
The impunity is total for the Afro-Portuguese criminal community — mass theft, without brakes, total tranquility in the face of the law and the security forces to such a point that bands of robbers just came into shops and calmly grabbed new clothes and shoes.
And be aware — as you can read in the paper, this is “the fifth arrastão to take place in this mall, that opened doors recently.” — Actually, this Commercial Centre just opened early this June! and they say it’s the biggest in all of Portugal and Spain.
And the article:
- - - - - - - - -
Arrastão at Dolce Vita nets more than 10 thousand Euros in robberies
A group of 30 individuals took part in an arrastão yesterday at the Dolce Vita Tejo in Amadora and have practically emptied the entire Staples shop. The robbers took photo and video cameras with the value of more than ten thousand Euros and ran away, with the Public Security Police (PSP) and Private Security companies present powerless to stop them.
Before the arrastão of yesterday, four groups, ranging from 20 to 50 individuals swept the mall and robbed whatever pleased them.
“In the face of such a great number of individuals we stayed quiet,” a girl working at one of the shops told 24 Hours, saying that “(I) was dying of fear.”
Another newspaper article:
24-year-old girl shot in the head by African immigrants
At the age of 24, ‘Ana’ lived a true nightmare from 01.30, next to the gas station of Galp in Palhais, Charneca da Caparica. The victim, in a Chevrolet Matiz, stopped her car in a street contiguous to the gas station. And it was then that two men, with one shotgun and their faces covered, took advantage to attack her. They shouted threats to her in Crioulo [mixed Portuguese and African language spoken by Cape Verdans] — and, frightened, ‘Ana’ started buzzing the car’s horn, asking for help.
One of the robbers, with a shotgun, raised the weapon — and, in one movement, shot at the head of the young driver. She was shot superficially, bleeding abundantly, and the robbers entered the victim’s car.
[…]
She was forced to drive across all Charneca of Caparica, at gunpoint, stopping at many ATMs. The robbers ended up making only 50 Euros. ‘Ana’ was then abandoned at the Forestal Road in Costa de Caparica, close to the beach of the Mata, soon after 03.00.
The robbers left the victim and the car and walked away. Panicking, ‘Ana’ phoned her parents, who called the GNR of Costa de Caparica.
5 comments:
Thanks for such a reception Baron.
I just didn't feel like doing something out of the Sunday night and as so opted to show that Portugal still has a lot of potential for this cultural enrichment thing. Especially the area of Greater Lisbon.
The main problem is that the media usually does not report these things and when they do, the things got very big or it's just published in populist Newspapers like "24 Horas" (24 Hours) or obscure newspapers like "O Diabo" (The Devil) a newspaper of a women that has made the voyage from being a leftist towards the extreme right: It is saudosistic of the Fascists and has surprinsingly some sources from inside palacian jobs. Also, it focus a lot in murders and strange cases as well as philosophy. It's really obscure and with little to no readership.
But what I really have to say is the date of the events. Actually, one of them did not happen in the last ten days:
Brazilians robbing cupples - 25th of June.
African gangs raiding the shopping - 12th of June.
Cape Verdens shooting girl in the head - 24th of June.
However, the "arrastões" at Dolce Vitta most likely will continue ad aeternum because that Comercial Centre is located out of Lisbon and literally between two majority African no-go-zones.
My guess-NO SECOND AMENDMENT in Brazil-Right!?
C-CS
Well to say the truth Christian the leftists almost got us armless a few years ago but they got a sound defeat on the plebiscite and now theres's no more talk about it.
Afonso i could bring you dozen of more of such cases but perpetrated by brazilians blacks and mestizos ( the bulk of the poor population)
but that would be racism right? But with or without racism we were the one of the safest countries in america 50ys ago and now... 50k murders per year...
Rocha, I'm no expert on Brazil but I like to believe that Rio de Janeiro is Brazil.
What happened there the last 50 or 70 years tells a lot and it also happened in the whole of Brazil. Think of Rio as a microcosmos of Brazil. As problems, I think the following are the structural ones:
The end of European emigration. The erosion of European supremacy in the sense that the dominant culture of Brazil was definetly European with just some other exotic mixes. An overwhelming non-European immigration/invasion (think of Northeasterners in São Paulo). When I speak of modern Brazil, I always end up talking about the movie Tropa de Elite and I notice that movie was so "right wing extremist" in a great part because it went against the Brazilian notion of romanticising the bad guy (o bom malandro?). That was also a problem.
And then, you moved the capital to Brasília and it spoke for itself. Brazil wants to recreate itself but has not the courage of assuming a strong identity. You could have your capital at Rio, Salvador da Bahía, São Paulo, Recife in Pernambuco, or even in a big city of the South like Porto Alegre or in Belo Horizonte or one of the many historical cities of Minas Gerais.
Each of these visions as capital of Brazil would impose a stong National character on the Nation based on a dinstinct, natural and uniquely "Brazilian Tradition", and Brazil had very broad options to chose a true National Capital and each option represented a uniquely and strong way of seeing Brazil. It would define "Brazilianity" and would be naturally Brazilian.
In my opinion, Rio de Janeiro was the most suited for capital for many reasons.
And then, Brazil opted to built a new city from scratch in the middle of nowhere. It really says a lot.
And, what happened to Rio (Brazil)? It was forgotten, left with one once maravillouse city now surrounded by the worst no-go-zones in the whole of European Civilisation. Rio is now in a true Civil War between Civilisation and the Third World and the asfalto is just between the blue sea and the favelas. Now you have Lula and your governors are trying to transform Brazil into one Venezulena-Honduran super power.
Also deadily is the concept of a "Latin America" or an "Hispanic ethinicity" based in Native Americans and Africans. This kind of "Latin American" identity is just the dream of Communists and Che Guevara anchored in the believing that the colonial-European Latin American elites had more to do with one another than with their respective peoples, which to some extent was true.
Althoug Brazil is apearently superior to this due to not speaking Spanish, this identification also happens in Brazil although in a smaller scale. However, the seed is there.
And of course, your poverty is just based on Brazil's demographical explosion.
And also, the majority of Brazilians have a deturpated vision of Portugal. They believe Portugal is just a bit of Brazil that ended up within Europe, and at the same time believe the Portuguese are the worst Brazilians because it was the Portuguese who are today in power opressing Brazilians, were the ones to make the country a third world country (yes, they complaint we should have made a United States of America in Brazil once the English succeeded doing that in America) and also, the Portuguese killed all the Indians and enslaved all the Africans.
When they come here and understand this is not an El Dorado, when they come here and understand that the society is more hostile to them than Brazil itself, that the cost of living is higher, etc. That initial seed of "hate" starts flourishing, ot at least, bad sentiments against Portugal grow.
And this derives from that precieved vision of Portugal as just the Northernmost state of Brazil where bad Brazilians live. I say this because the majority of Brazilians who end up in London, behave differently there.
Rocha, if you don't believe see "Wanderley" (a Portuguese comic passing as a Brazilian and making fun of Portugal and Brazilians) in this episode of the hilarious show Vai tudo Abaixo (if you like the last joke-teller you sent, I think you'll find this program hilarious):
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
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