Lawyer Leonel Gomes Cá warned, on Sunday, the day of the funeral of Odair Moniz, a man who died after being shot by the PSP in Cova da Moura, of the danger of generalisations.

On SIC Notícias, the lawyer began by saying that Portugal has a "serious problem with generalisations", giving an example of how "the police and law enforcement agents can be seen on the one hand and how they can be seen on the other".

"I was 11 years old and one day, on the beach, curious, I asked an agent what EIR [Rapid Intervention Team] was. The answer was 'Racial Extermination Team'. At the time, I don't even know how I answered him that I didn't he must have been very intelligent, because 'extermination' is written with an 'e' and the acronym had an 'i'", recalled Leonel Gomes Cá, admitting that even today he makes every effort to ensure that this episode does not cloud his view of all police officers.

"I have to make a mental effort, regardless of the memories I've experienced, to think that an agent who appears in front of me may not suffer from the same problem that that agent had", he confessed.

But the lawyer has more examples of the “great danger of generalisations”. "I have friends who tell me that they don't want to be racist or prejudiced, but that every time they have interactions with a certain race or ethnicity it is always negative. And, therefore, they assume that these people are all like that", he highlighted.

Leonel Gomes Cá reminds us that "not all police officers are racist, just as not all residents of these neighbourhoods are criminals."