Hogmanay with “stones”
Communication with most homeowners in the village of Pedras d’el Rei/“King’s Stones”/“Vasco’s Testicles” remains impossible; more than 95% of houses have no permanent occupant and no current contact details for homeowners are available via the civil registry office. Documents from the registry office - if possible to obtain - only include the name of the owner and an old postal address (from prior to their ownership). All private mail for 98% of residential addresses appears still to delivered by CTT to an anonymous corporate entity which may reject, censor or withhold it from the intended recipient, at its own whim. 14 disused-looking metal boxes exist on a dirt track outside the village, indicating that perhaps 2% of homeowners (throughout the history of the village) have accepted an offer from CTT to have their mail deposited on this dirt track, far from their homes.
I have mailed physical letters to all addresses listed on the registry documents for my condominium (72 units) and left letters under doors of the apartments, requesting to convene the legally-mandatory condominium meeting for this month; only 1 co-owner has contacted me in response (Vasco’s Testicles refuse to acknowledge the existence of condominiums and actively block all attempts at communication). Some co-owners of my condominium appear to have deceased, without any new owner being registered. Some units appear to be leased for private gain by entities which may be unrelated to the owner and/or without being registered as Local Accommodation.
Aware that some owners of empty houses in Pedras d’el Rei visit during the festive season, I made attempts to speak with people I met. In what follows, I recount events from the night of 31st December 2023:
Pedras d’el Rei, 22:50hrs, 31st December 2023.
After dark, the village was mostly quiet and not more than 10% of houses had light in the windows. I counted a total of 6 parties in progress: 3 were of Portuguese ‘families and friends’; 2 were of foreign tourists and one large party (>100 people) was organised by ‘Vasco’s Testicles’ in a restaurant attached to the reception building.
Several men wearing all-black ‘security uniforms’ were patrolling the village (Normally, various plain-clothed “maintenance staff” act as informal ‘surveillance and security agents’ for Vasco’s Testicles). At some point in the evening, I noticed that two men, dressed ‘all-black’, were following me and monitoring my movements, causing fear and alarm. At this location on a public road, approximately 250m from the party of Vasco’s Testicles in the restaurant (75m from my home), I approached the 2 men dressed in black and requested to know why they were following me. They just said that they were security guards. I requested to know who had hired them. They replied that they work for the “Ministry of Internal Affairs”. I asked which country did they represent, to which they replied that they represented the ministry of internal affairs of Portugal, but in “a different branch from the GNR”. I attempted to look at the logo on their clothing: at which, they turned away and covered it up; I persisted and obtained these photographs:
The attention of all “security guards” acting on behalf of Vasco’s Testicles was obviously focused on me and they made numerous attempts to prevent me from approaching the public land near the restaurant. They repeatedly told me I was “not welcome” and they ordered me to leave public land and to “go home”. I informed them that I simply wished to talk to members of the public in the public space of Portugal. I felt increasingly afraid and vulnerable in the vicinity of the restaurant, but I felt it was vital to communicate information about organised crime to members of the public. Several teenagers were present amongst the gathering, some of whom were playing outside in the public garden. I returned to my home to collect copies of a printed letter, with the intention of giving it to the teenagers and asking them to give it to their parents. When I began giving the letter to the teenagers, security guards surrounded me and physically prevented me from offering the letter to the teenagers; in addition, they took the letter away from each of the teenagers to whom I had given it:
On two occasions, I knocked repeatedly on the glass windows of the restaurant for the purpose of getting the attention of the people inside, because I felt threatened by the security guards and I wished to have a conversation with a responsible adult. I repeatedly gesticulated to people inside that I wished to have a conversation, but no intelligent adult was willing to have a conversation. More than 15 adults (including the security guards, reception staff of the “Gaprei Group”, maintenance workers and attendees of the party) were outside the building - on public land - but all refused to have a conversation. Not one adult demonstrated any sense of responsible leadership. All of them refused to tell me who was in charge or accountable for the behaviour of the security guards.
Whilst gesticulating to a group of adults who were sitting at a table inside the restaurant, at 00:31hrs, I was violently assaulted by two men. The two men held me in a chokehold for what felt like more than a minute, whilst violently attempting to take my phone from me. All my attention was on retaining my grip upon my phone, because I knew it contained evidence of serious crimes against the Portuguese Republic. Nobody came to help me, despite that approximately 100 adults were within line of sight through the glass walls of the restaurant.
At 00:33hrs I was violently assaulted for a second time - by a group of 4 men - at the other side of the restaurant.
The motive for both violent assaults appears to be that some individuals present did not want their presence to be known. The verbally-expressed justification (for both violent assaults) was that making video recordings of humans in Portugal is a criminal offence (interestingly, the same groups who assaulted me for this reason were also making video recordings of me). Whilst retreating from the second violent assault, I saw an expensive vehicle arriving. I attempted to speak with the man and woman who exited the expensive vehicle. The woman remained silent, whilst the man - initially - engaged in polite conversation. When I expressed my concerns about the “Pedras Group of anonymous legal entities”, the man replied that he is complicit with Vasco’s Testicles and refused further communication, except one order: “Go back to whatever country you came from!”.
I made 2 emergency calls, dialing “911” on my phone (at 00:39hrs and 00:43hrs):
On the first call (at 00:39), I was quickly transferred to a call-handler who knew English. The call-handler who spoke to me in English immediately hung up when I said, “I am being actively pursued by several men dressed in black in Pedras d’el Rei village, near Tavira”. When I called 911 for a second time (at 00:43hrs), I was again immediately transferred to a call handler who knew English. I repeated (3 or 4 times) that I needed immediate and urgent help, that I had twice been physically assaulted and was being actively pursued by several aggressive men. I also repeated my location. The call-handler paused … then calmly informed me that my situation was not an emergency: he proceeded to tell me that I must go to the GNR office in Tavira within normal business hours, at my convenience, whereupon I could file a complaint. I repeated that I was being actively pursued by several aggressive men, to which the call handler repeated that I must file a complaint the next day. I repeated for a third time, in panic and disillusionment, that I was being actively pursued and that I had already been violently assaulted - twice, within the prior 10 minutes - and that I was afraid for my life. The call handler simply repeated that I must file a complaint the next day and that it was impossible for the police to respond immediately.
Nevertheless, soon thereafter, about 5 GNR officers attended. At first, I imagined that those GNR officers might be friends. I was seeking help from two young Portuguese people - a man and a woman - when the GNR officers turned up. I already have very low trust in the GNR, due to the fact that 3 men (who wore uniforms of the GNR, in a building of the GNR) in Tavira refused to permit me to file complaints about blatant crimes (in September 2023). In the presence of the GNR officers, I asked the two young Portuguese people if they could stay to help translate with the GNR officers, but they were afraid to stay (and quickly left). The GNR officers acted aggressively towards me, informing me immediately that they did not understand the situation and that they thought I was a troublemaker. I ran away from the GNR officers and sought help at one of the Hogmanay parties of Portuguese people. The Portuguese people at that party appeared not to understand the dangers and refused to help; I pleaded for their help (which they ignored), whilst the 5 GNR officers physically assaulted me, perhaps because they thought I was causing some kind of ‘public disorder’. I was only released from physical restraint by the GNR officers when I asked them if I could simply “go home”.
All GNR officers (call handlers and attending agents) appear to have closely collaborated with “private security agents” hired by Vasco’s testicles or the mafia of stones, in direct contravention to Law No.º 34/2013, of May 16.
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Prohibitions
1 - It is prohibited in the exercise of private security and self-protection activity:
(a) the practice of activities that have as their object the pursuit of objectives or the performance of functions corresponding to the exclusive competences of the judicial or police authorities;
(b) threaten, inhibit or restrict the exercise of rights, freedoms and guarantees or other fundamental rights, without prejudice to the provisions of Article 19(1) and (2);º
c) The protection of goods, services or persons involved in illicit activities.
2 - Entities and private security personnel, in the exercise of their functions, may not interfere or intervene in public demonstrations and meetings, nor in conflicts of a political, trade union or labor nature.
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Rules of conduct
In the exercise of private security activity, surveillance personnel must:
a) Respect the fundamental rights and other rights of citizens;
b) Maintain an integral conduct and in accordance with the legal principles;
c) Maintain a discreet and resilient attitude;
d) Not to maintain links with illicit activities;
e) Do not constitute a disturbing factor for public order;
f) Provide assistance to people in danger.
In conclusion
These events - a spectacular Hogmanay - suggest that ongoing tribal-patronage and organised clientelism in Portugal may not compatible with laws and values of the European Union. I propose that “República de Portugal” be renamed as “República Do Miau”, with special reference to words of Mahatma Gandhi.
“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated ... I hold that the more helpless a creature, the more entitled it is to protection by man from the cruelty of man.”
Postscript: At around 13:00hrs on 2nd January, I attended the GNR office in Tavira for the purpose of reporting the assaults. The GNR officer who attended me told me that he had been one of the responding officers during the night and that he didn’t want my side of the story. I calmly requested, several times, to be permitted to provide my version of events and to report the assaults. The police officer refused, repeatedly, to permit me to provide my account of what had happened. He made false statements about events he had not witnessed. He contradicted almost everything I said and was unwilling to receive any information. He stated: “Everything at Pedras is perfectly legal, it is nice restaurant, nice people, all perfectly legal.” He didn’t give a clear answer when I enquired how he could be so confident, but indicated that he considered the private security agents to be trustworthy colleagues. I told him that the private security agents told me that they worked for Ministry of the Interior of Portugal, at which he did not express any concern. I said there is evidence of very complex organised crime and he replied “no there isn’t, there is no evidence”, whilst refusing my requests to show him evidence.