An investigation published last Thursday in several Portuguese media outlets into hate speech in the PSP and GNR has pressured the government to carry out a clean-up to end extremism in the two companies.
The reports, published in Visão, Público, SIC, Expresso and on the Setenta e Quatro website and carried out by a Portuguese consortium of investigative journalists, identified 295 agents from the GNR and 296 from the PSP, the vast majority of whom are still active. social networks have spread messages with racist, xenophobic and homophobic content, sometimes mixed with calls for violence. Many of the authors assume support or militancy in Chega and other far-right formations, and the study’s authors studied more than three thousand publications, finding screenshots🇧🇷
For the Minister of the Interior, José Luís Carneiro, the “alleged messages” are of “extreme seriousness”, because he has therefore instructed the IGAI (General Inspectorate of Internal Administration) to investigate the matter, declaring the investigation a “priority character” has.
According to PSP management, “racist, xenophobic or hateful” behavior within the company has already resulted in six disciplinary convictions since 2019, and nine disciplinary proceedings are pending.
The minister made himself available to provide clarification in Parliament, saying that “this situation requires an attitude of great clarity, steadfastness, determination and consistency on our part”. However, Carneiro stressed that it is important not to “confuse the part with the whole” – that is, the “overwhelming majority” of PSP and GNR agents “watch over the defense of constitutional values and the rule of law”. But as for those who don’t, “we can’t get around the need to establish responsibilities.”
“Separating Wheat From Chaff”
In short, the government is now being pressured to act with a heavy hand. In a statement, the PCP defended “selection, training and operational cadre measures that prevent the development of such attitudes within institutions tasked with defending democratic legality while respecting constitutional values and principles”.
🇧🇷[É preciso] separate those who may have committed crimes of incitement to violence, xenophobia or racism from all others, who make up the vast majority of Portugal’s security forces.”
The BE referred that “many of the reported behaviors even shape the practice of crimes such as discrimination and incitement to hatred and violence, threats, incitement to collective disobedience, coercion against institutional bodies, defamation, discrimination on grounds of race and religion, incitement to violent change of the rule of law, including incitement to collective disobedience”.
For the PSD, the party’s General Secretary, Hugo Soares, defended that “from an internal and even an external point of view, these responsibilities are absolutely necessary to separate the wheat from the chaff” and “separate those who will ultimately have committed crimes”. incitement to violence or xenophobia or racism of all others, who make up the vast majority of the security forces in Portugal”.
The GNR leadership responded to the case by calling for charges of discrimination and xenophobia detected among its elements. The PSP announced that “it will report to the appropriate judicial authorities the indications” referred to in the reports. According to him, “racist, xenophobic or hateful” behavior within the company has already led to six disciplinary convictions since 2019, while nine disciplinary proceedings are pending.
Source: DN
