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Police patrols in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro in October 2019. AFP / Daniel Ramalho

In early December, the death of nine young people aged 14 to 23 during a police intervention at a favela party in São Paulo shocked public opinion. While the Brazilian president welcomes a drop in homicides, police violence hit records in 2019.

From our correspondent,

During the night of November 30 to December 1, the inhabitants of Paraisópolis experienced hell. The traditional baile funk of this favela in the southern area of ​​São Paulo ended with the sounds of gunshots and cries from the locals. Nine young people aged 14 to 23, who came to party, died trampled by the crowd and suffocated by tear gas canisters from the military police.

According to the police version, six officers were chasing two "bandits" who were fleeing on a motorcycle. They allegedly exchanged fire with the police and escaped in the direction of the baile funk, which brought together nearly 5,000 people. Moments later, 38 military police sowed panic at this festive and popular open-air gathering. They fire rubber bullets, launch d-grenades and tear gas to disperse the crowd. Videos taken by some residents show excessive use of force, and police officers blocking the alleys from which residents could escape.

Culture of violence

This tragic episode shows many dysfunctions of the action of the military police in the favelas of Brazil. For Rafael Alcadipani, professor of the Getulio Vargas Foundation and associate of the Brazilian Public Security Forum, the use of rubber bullets and de-encirclement grenades is not adapted to the structure of the favelas. " The police did not follow the protocol indicated for this kind of situation," said the public security specialist. She tried to disperse the crowd while blocking possible exits. "

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A video that has gone viral on social networks shows a police officer posted at the corner of an alley, armed with an iron bar and severely beating each resident who tries to flee. He even strikes a boy's legs on crutches, and is forced to stop laughing after a few minutes. If the video does not date from this episode, it was filmed in the same favela, two months earlier, after another police intervention in the same baile funk on Saturday evening, the DZ7 . One more proof that this police violence is a rule and even a “ subculture in the police ”, according to Rafael Alcadipani.

On the Monday following the massacre, João Doria, governor of the state of São Paulo, first said: " It is not the police who are responsible for the deaths, but rather the bandits who invaded the baile funk ". A few days later and faced with the negative repercussions of the videos showing the attitude of the police towards disarmed young people, Mr. Doria changes his tone and says he is " shocked " by the disproportionate violence of the " best police in Brazil ".

Police who "shoot to kill"

Between January and October 2019, the São Paulo police killed 697 people. Ten more than last year at the same time. In the state of Rio de Janeiro, the numbers are even more impressive, with 1,546 people killed by police, an average of five deaths per day. A record since 1998, the year in which the Institute of Public Security began to count these kinds of figures.

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These sad statistics are explained by the security and repressive policies of the States of Rio and São Paulo. The governors of the two states were elected last year with a violent speech towards the populations of the favelas. João Doria, in the middle of the campaign, said last year that the police " shoot to kill ". Wilson Witzel, Governor of the State of Rio, said the police should " aim at the head " of the favela bandits. He has already shown himself parading aboard a helicopter where snipers target the inhabitants of these poor neighborhoods. A " more precise " technique, according to Mr. Witzel to eliminate drug traffickers. But stray bullets from the police are wreaking havoc: in recent months, several children under the age of 10 have died on the way to school.

Governor Witzel's attitude leads Renata Souza, Chair of the Human Rights Defense Commission of the Legislative Assembly of the State of Rio de Janeiro, to say that there is a " disguised death penalty " in Brazil . An overwhelming majority of police victims are black men under the age of 25, living in favelas or poor areas.

Funk repression

The Paraisópolis tragedy is not an isolated episode. It shows the double standards of the police vis-à-vis its citizens. The same evening, in Heliópolis, another favela in São Paulo, a person was killed by the police in a baile funk . Between January 1 and December 1, 2019, the military police of the State of São Paulo carried out more than 7,500 operations during baile funk . "The police act brutally, points Danilo Cymrot, doctor of criminology at the University of São Paulo. She would not have this attitude as part of a party of middle and upper class teenagers. Author of a thesis on the criminalization of funk, the specialist underlines that the police and the political power act with hostility towards this musical genre from peripheral and poor areas.

Funk is one of the “ cultural products with the greatest international success ”, recalls Taísa Machado, funk artist. In Rio de Janeiro, she gives Afrofunk lessons for women, in a reassuring and friendly atmosphere. " The baile funk is a party that takes advantage under tension, " explains the one who only goes there " in sneakers, to run better when the police decide to intervene. "

The Paraisópolis tragedy took place while the Brazilian Congress is in the midst of a debate on a series of "anti-crime" laws proposed by the Minister of Justice Sergio Moro. Among the projects, the opposition is fighting against what it calls the " license to kill", a law that would allow the police not to be prosecuted if they kill while they intervene in contexts of " high stress and danger ”. " With this project, the military police in Paraisópolis would not even be worried, " said Rodrigo Maia, president of the Chamber of Deputies. Monday, December 9, a week after the tragedy, the 38 police officers involved in the massacre were removed from their duties.