The Madeira Regional Delegation of the Union Association of Police Professionals (ASPP/PSP/) reacted to the stabbing of a young police officer in Ribeira Brava. Through the regional delegation, the ASPP/PSP reveals its deep concern over the serious occurrence recorded during the São Pedro Festivities, in the village of Ribeira Brava, in Madeira.
On the night of the incident, reveals the ASPP, “a young agent of the Public Security Police, currently in the service of the Metropolitan Command of Lisbon, and who was on vacation in the company of his relatives, was savagely stabbed by an individual and resident of Câmara de Lobos, known to the authorities and who has a significant criminal history.”
According to the ASPP version, the agent, upon noticing a brawl during the festivities, identified himself as “a police officer and tried to intervene to restore public order. In a cowardly and violent way, he was stabbed between six and eight times, one of which severely perforated his lung, which forced his immediate hospitalisation at the Dr. Nélio Mendonça Hospital, where he remains in intensive care.”
This occurrence, unfortunately, is not an isolated case. The ASPP/PSP has been warning, insistently, of the worrying increase in aggressions against on and off-duty police officers. These situations raise serious questions about the effective protection of security force professionals and the ability of the judicial system to respond in an effective and dissuasive manner.
We are naturally apprehensive about the state of health of our colleague, to whom we wish a quick and complete recovery, but we are also concerned about whether justice will be served.
Unfortunately, we have witnessed, “in other similar cases, judicial decisions that allow the aggressor to return home before the victim. We sincerely hope that this is not another one of those cases. Justice must be on the side of those who fulfill the duty to protect society.”
The ASPP/PSP will continue to closely monitor this situation and demands that exemplary and urgent measures be taken to stop this cycle of violence against those who risk their lives for the common good of the people they serve.
Samantha Gannon
info at madeira-weekly.com
