In just eight hours, from midnight on Sunday to 8am this morning, GNR police throughout the country arrested eight people for flouting the rules of Portugal’s State of Emergency.
All those arrested were discovered to be out and about when they shouldn’t have been.
One was detained for driving while over the alcohol limit; two – in the municipality of Lagoa in the Algarve, were arrested for the crime of ‘qualified offence to physical integrity”, while another in Viseu was cited for the crime of resistance and the coercion of a public servant (very possible the arresting police agent).
The others were variously detained for ‘crimes of disobedience’.
As noticiasaominuto stresses, the GNR are trying to convey the message that staying at home ‘can save lives’. The objective of the exercise is to delay the propagation of Covid-19 as much as possible, by sparing hospitals from needless cases.
Said the police force: “This is why we are appealing to everyone’s civic sense of duty to stay safely in their homes”.
All those arrested have been released, pending court hearings, under the lightest of bail terms: to remain in their area of residence (which is what everyone single one of us is meant to be doing anyway).
