There is a social contract that sustains our life in community: we give up part of our freedom and place our security in the hands of the State and its institutions. We grew up believing that a GNR soldier is a sign of secure authority and that a “peace soldier” is a symbol of altruism and heroism. Therefore, the recent news about shamefully abusive behavior by members of these valuable corporations hits us all like a violent punch in the stomach. Although with due reservation as we are not aware of the details and always with the insurmountable motto that in a democratic society only those who have a final and unappealable sentence are guilty, even in the abstract, the two publicly disclosed situations of abuse are very worrying.
The recent cases involving GNR soldiers and members of the Volunteer Fire Department give us all a lot to think about, even if it turns out that they were isolated incidents. They can, tragically, be the barometer of a sick society and institutions that have failed in their most fundamental mission: protecting and caring for others.
In the first case, the suspicion that GNR soldiers were helping human trafficking networks and profiting from the slavery of immigrants is atrocious villainy. These immigrants, in most cases, invisible to the eyes of most Portuguese people, seek refuge and work in our country. The job no one wants to do. Instead of finding guarantors of respect for human rights, they found facilitators of the abuses they suffer. When those who have the power of authority ally themselves with the exploiter and abuser, there is a lot that is wrong in the corporation in question and in Portuguese society in general, of which the corporation continues to be a mirror. The recently revealed facts, if confirmed as true, even if only in part, reveal a structural basis of indifference and impunity that tarnishes the honor of the security force in question and of all soldiers who daily carry out with pride, honorably and with zeal, often facing dangers of all kinds, the duties they swore to fulfill.
Regarding the incident at the fire department, the horror changes form, but maintains the essence of abuse of power. The allegation of sexual abuse perpetrated by firefighters against a young colleague, under the pretext of it being a “practice”, represents a rude blow to the aura of the “Soldiers of Peace”. Fire stations are, in the collective imagination, sanctuaries of camaraderie and courageous heroes. Knowing that, within barracks, such atrocities are committed by “brothers in arms”, reveals a normalization of violence and abuse, under the unacceptable disguise of tradition or “unfunny” jokes.
What unites these two cases? Abuse of authority and betrayal of trust. In both cases, the victims found themselves in a position of extreme vulnerability, either due to precarious migration or due to the internal hierarchy, which was used by the aggressors to guarantee silence and submission in the face of the abusive exercise of the repugnant violation of the victims’ rights to dignity and physical and psychological integrity. The cases function as biopsies of a social tissue that may be in necrosis. And they can reveal that the selection of those professionals and their monitoring is deficient.
The justice that is done (condemning and/or acquitting), in itself, does not cure the social disease. It is necessary to ask: how did a society like ours, with more than 50 years of experience in democracy, reach such a high degree of dehumanization? A society where the military exploits slaves and firefighters abuse their own is a society that has lost its ethical direction. We cannot make the mistake of blaming corporations for the unworthy behavior of some, but we also cannot accept the “bad apples” theory without questioning the basket that houses them. It is urgent to reform, monitor and, above all, humanize those who serve us, but also those who are served. Selfishness and egocentrism have affected us individually and as a community. We make our own freedoms the legitimization of the abuses we commit towards third parties. It’s time to stop and return to the ethics and solidarity that brought us here in times gone by. Because if it isn’t, it won’t end well! It is in everyone’s hands, every day, in the smallest everyday gestures. Respect others and show solidarity with others.
Lawyer and founding partner of ATMJ – Sociedade de Advogados