Mid-Century

“Os Recalcitrantes,” Emmérico Nunes, 1949 on Flickr.

1949 illustration by Emmérico Nunes. Scanned from the 1971 book “O Livro do Automóvel,” page 35. Writen by Filipe Nogueira, published by Editorial Verbo, Portugal.

Click image for 685 x 393 size.

Page 35, “The Unwilling”: “Usually they’re well-off people, trusting of their good connections.

Rules don’t apply to them and they’re not afraid of penalties because these are mere trifles that they despise.

They hardly ever have a bad record and almost never show up as guilty of any accidents. To them police officers in Portugal are elements that disturb the freedom of traffic; in America it would be much better…! Most of the times they don’t even know their country, nor have they ever left it.

They always tell of many cases where they were right and the police was found to have overstepped its mark.

When one draws attention to any irregularity they usually let slip skilfully, betwixt their arguments, that they’re friends with the chief of police.

To such men the police officer should politely communicate he won’t forget to mention that detail in his description of them.

Maybe they’ll conclude that resorting to this undercover process of intimidation can backfire.”