Lula: Who curses famous people in public places is ‘171’ – 01/18/2023 – Power

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) said this Wednesday (18) that people who curse famous people in public places are “171”, in reference to the popular expression used to describe citizens who commit illicit acts.

“I have a thesis that is the following: every time you enter a bar, it never happened to me because I don’t go to bars or restaurants, but every time a famous person enters the bar and someone curses, that citizen who cursed is 171” , said.

The Chief Executive mentioned situations in which his lawyer Cristiano Zanin and singers Chico Buarque and Gilberto Gil were unexpectedly attacked and said that it is necessary to identify who these people are.

The expression 171 came up in reference to the article of the Penal Code that bears that number and deals with the crime of embezzlement.

Last week, Zanin was cursed by someone in the airport bathroom while brushing his teeth. The man called him a “bandit” and “corrupt” and provoked him, but the lawyer did not react and just left the room.

Lula said that he instructed Zanin to make a representation to the Federal Police so that the person responsible for attacking him could be identified and punished.

“We are not going to allow these barbaric offenses that exist, of threats, of cursing people anywhere. People have to be punished,” he said in an interview with journalist Natuza Nery, from GloboNews.

He said the lawyer did not react because he is “very polite”, but he believes the case cannot be forgotten.

“This citizen cannot go on thinking that he has the right to curse people at the airport and get away with it. This citizen has a family, the family has to know what kind of human being he is”, he said.

The person responsible for recording public people with offenses against them, according to Lula, “has a hazy past, has committed some crime in his life, has a tax evasion process”.

“You can know that there is something, because a normal citizen, even if he is from the right, if he sees Natuza entering the restaurant with her boyfriend, no matter how much he likes Natuza, he will not curse, he will not offend her. That’s what happens in the civilized world and that’s what I want to rebuild in Brazil, the right of people to live in peace,” he said.

The representative also mentioned the case of Gilberto Gil, who was insulted in Qatar last November, when he was in the country to watch the World Cup.

“Let’s go, Bolsonaro. Let’s go, Lei Rouanet”, said some in a tone of irony as the singer walked towards the stadium’s stands, before being cursed with profanity.