Organised by the Vida Justa movement, the initiative managed to bring together people from different cultures and ethnicities, who paraded for around an hour and a half between Marquês de Pombal and Praça dos Restauradores on 26 October, along a route marked by shouts of protest, the main being “justice for Odair”.

Holding the red flags of Vida Justa, as well as Cape Verde (Odair Moniz's country of origin), the protesters also shouted “Police violence, cultural violence”, “the united neighbourhoods will never be defeated” and, in Cape Verdean Creole, “ Nu sta junta, Nu sta forti [We are together, we are strong]”.

In Praça dos Restauradores, several people laid flowers at the monument where there was a photograph of Odair Moniz, in addition to several participants in the demonstration speaking.

Among the interventions, applause was requested for the “historic union” achieved in the initiative, with the president of the Associação Moinho da Juventude, from Cova da Moura (Amadora), Jacklison Duarte, leaving a request: “United, together and organised we can give our voice."

The officer also said, referring to the riots that took place in different areas of the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, that “not all the burned cars were burned by the people of the neighbourhood”.

The demonstration ended at around 6pm with a minute of silence.

Shooting

Odair Moniz, who was 43 years old and a resident of Bairro do Zambujal, in Amadora, was shot by a PSP agent in the early hours of 21 October, in Bairro Cova da Moura, in the same municipality, in the district of Lisbon, and died shortly afterwards, at the hospital.

According to the PSP, the man “ran away” after seeing a police vehicle and lost his way in Cova da Moura, where, when approached by the agents, “he resisted arrest and tried to attack them using the bladed weapon.”

The SOS Racismo association and the Vida Justa movement contested the police version and demanded a “serious and impartial” investigation to determine responsibilities, considering that “a culture of impunity” in the police is at stake.

The General Inspectorate of Internal Administration and the PSP opened investigations, and the agent who shot the man was named a defendant.

Following this incident, there were riots in Zambujal and, since Tuesday, in other neighbourhoods in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, with buses, cars and garbage bins being burned.

The PSP recorded more than 120 incidents, detained around two dozen citizens and identified a similar number of people. There were seven injured, one of which was seriously injured.

Counter-protest

Due to the riots, and because a Chega demonstration “in defense of the police” was scheduled at the same time, also in Lisbon, the PSP called for tranquillity.

The Vida Justa demonstration was initially going to end at the Assembly of the Republic, but the movement changed the route by ending at the same place as Chega's counter-demonstration, which started from Praça do Município and was also held without incident.

Policing was carried out by the different areas of the Lisbon Metropolitan Command with “permanent support” from resources from the PSP Special Police Unit. Several arteries in the capital were conditioned.