This brief entry was roughly recorded during my day in Quarteira, Algarve. As I walked through a famous street market, where indeed lots of bootleg merch is sold, all of a sudden dozens of police run in, many in full riot gear brandishing shotguns and automatic weapons. It was an string operation against the poorest segment of the population… gypsy street merchants. Their goal was to find all merchandise with brand names, confiscate it and punish the vender. Several officers wore ski masks to not be recognized. All in all, further proof of the fascist tendencies that have returned to a nation like Portugal, in this case not under the guise of anti-terrorism, but the dreaded “anti-piracy” which allegedly is destroying the obscenely wealthy corprorations of the world. This.. is robbing the poor to feed the rich.
ps- To the so-called police officer who came up to me and in a threatening manner said I could not film: Smile asshole, you and your gung ho colleagues are on the internets.