O Lapo, the café restaurant in the capital that refused to shut under the terms of Portugal’s renewed State of Emergency (click here), held a new protest last night, attracting ‘tens of people’ who gathered outside ‘not wearing masks’, writes Jornal de Notícias.
JN’s report was provided in the form of a small video clip, with no sound.
The truth is Portugal’s media is doing its best to overlook civic protests that have followed the withdrawal of so many civil liberties in the name of combating the pandemic.
As more and more measures are introduced, people are getting ‘tired’, questioning for example the compulsion for limiting people’s choices to the degree that they have been limited, on the basis that it is in the interests of protecting public health.
In the first lockdown, outdoor exercise was almost positively encouraged, this time round, anyone straying too far from their place of residence seems to risk being fined.
Thus movements like the one promoted by O Lapo, highlighting what they dub the ‘scientific inconsistencies’ at play, are gathering support.
Nonetheless, proprietors António and Bruna Guerreiro have taken pains to ensure that anyone standing up for what they believe to be a Constitutional Right (resistance) and subsequently accused by authorities of transgressing, should follow six basic rules:
1 – Do not lie (‘we have the right to go outside without having to invent a story to justify it’);
2 – Treat police agents politely, no matter whether the inverse applies;
3 – Ask for the professional identification of the police agents as well as details of the station to which they belong;
4 – Give your identification if this is requested for the effects of a fine under article 2º, line a) and 3º, nº 1 of Decree Law n.º 28-B/2020, June 26;
5 – Exercise your right of defence (we will be supplying a note);
6 – Do nothing else that could constitute a crime of disobedience as this could lead to arrest.
