Portuguese Cultural Enrichment

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:
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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.