Following the Police Trade Union leader's declaration (see previous post), President Jardim said he was lodging criminal proceedings against him for defamation. The Trade Union leader, he claimed, had been paid to come from Lisbon to Madeira to tell lies. Here's a short reminder of Jardim's relation with the Police.
Compared to a few years ago, the police is now fairly autonomous, obeying their own hierarchy and the law, rather than the whims of our petty dictator. Gone are the days of Nuno Homem Costa who, when chief of police, was always at Jardim's beck and call. Jardim loved to use the police as his own personal instrument, particularly where expropriations were concerned and the police were used to strong-arm people off their property - the victims lost their land without due compensation (or even the basic formalities being observed). Jardim would often interrupt Costa's social life, by summoning him up at parties to sort out some demonstration or other. Costa would protest that Jardim may be in charge of politics, but he was in charge of law and order and could not be ordered about. Then he would toddle off to do Jardim's dirty business.
One time Jardim berated Homem Costa publicly for not using force, when he had ordered him to disperse a peaceful demonstration to protest the death of a child on a dangerous piece of road (where two other people had previously been run over). When Homem Costa retired from the Police he was nicely rewarded by being appointed CEO of the public bus company Horários do Funchal - which is now practically bankrupt under his 'experienced' leadership. Curiously, the bus station headquarters is stationed on a piece of land occupied by the Government in the 1980s and never paid for - one more of those dodgy expropriation that will have to be paid for one day.
Jardim still still tries to misuse the police for his own purposes and there are always minor Homem Costa figures ready to please him.
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