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''' ''BRAZIL MERCILESS BREEZE'' '''
SADLY - VERY - VERY TRAGICALLY - if not strangely, in Brazil - if you are black and live in favela, anything can be mistaken for a gun.
People have been killed for carrying an umbrella, an hydraulic jack, a cellphone, a backpack. Four years ago, a 16-year-old-student was killed when his bag of popcorn was mistaken for drugs.
In the poorest neighborhoods, random episodes of violence, torture, humiliation and verbal aggression by the police are so common that we have a word in Portuguese for them : ''esculacho.''
The slang refers to the degradation treatment of black poor citizens by police officers.
''Our society has constructed the idea that the favela is inferior, that the people who live there are worthless,'' the journalist and activist Raull Santiago said in an interview with The Guardian.
He is the co-founder of ''Papo Reto'' [Straight Talk], a group similar to ''Mare Vive.'' which monitors police abuses in the Complexo de Alemno favela, also in north Rio de Janeiro.
POLICE KILLINGS IN THE STATE OF RIO DE JANEIRO reached a 20 year high last year with 1,810 people murdered by security forces - almost five deaths per day [Twenty-two police officers were killed in the same period].
POLICE forces are now responsible for 43 percent of all the violent deaths in the state, an astonishingly high number even by Brazilian standards.
While the authorities claim that most of the victims are gang members who engaged in confrontations with the police - many cases show signs of being extrajudicial killings.
Other times, victims are innocent bystanders caught in the ceasefire : Six children/students died last year during police raids in the Janeiro's poorest communities.
SAO PAULO BRAZIL : IT WAS AROUND 5 a.m. on an average Tuesday. I was sitting on the sofa eating toast when I received a Facebook notification saying that a police raid had just begun.''Please don't leave your home,'' I read ''If you are outside, take shelter!''
Classes were cancelled that morning. Armed tanks rolled through the streets, shooting seemingly at random. By 8 a.m. according to reports, police officers broke into homes and tortured residents. Others headed to the roofs to set up sniper hideouts. The operation lasted all day. It was entirely typical.
People have been killed for carrying an umbrella, an hydraulic jack, a cellphone, a backpack. Four years ago, a 16-year-old-student was killed when his bag of popcorn was mistaken for drugs.
In the poorest neighborhoods, random episodes of violence, torture, humiliation and verbal aggression by the police are so common that we have a word in Portuguese for them : ''esculacho.''
The slang refers to the degradation treatment of black poor citizens by police officers.
''Our society has constructed the idea that the favela is inferior, that the people who live there are worthless,'' the journalist and activist Raull Santiago said in an interview with The Guardian.
He is the co-founder of ''Papo Reto'' [Straight Talk], a group similar to ''Mare Vive.'' which monitors police abuses in the Complexo de Alemno favela, also in north Rio de Janeiro.
POLICE KILLINGS IN THE STATE OF RIO DE JANEIRO reached a 20 year high last year with 1,810 people murdered by security forces - almost five deaths per day [Twenty-two police officers were killed in the same period].
POLICE forces are now responsible for 43 percent of all the violent deaths in the state, an astonishingly high number even by Brazilian standards.
While the authorities claim that most of the victims are gang members who engaged in confrontations with the police - many cases show signs of being extrajudicial killings.
Other times, victims are innocent bystanders caught in the ceasefire : Six children/students died last year during police raids in the Janeiro's poorest communities.
SAO PAULO BRAZIL : IT WAS AROUND 5 a.m. on an average Tuesday. I was sitting on the sofa eating toast when I received a Facebook notification saying that a police raid had just begun.''Please don't leave your home,'' I read ''If you are outside, take shelter!''
Classes were cancelled that morning. Armed tanks rolled through the streets, shooting seemingly at random. By 8 a.m. according to reports, police officers broke into homes and tortured residents. Others headed to the roofs to set up sniper hideouts. The operation lasted all day. It was entirely typical.
Of course, it didn't happen where I live - a middle-class neighborhood in Sao Paulo, where such acts of state terror would be nearly inconceivable. No. the operation took place last month in Complexo da Mare, a complex of 16 favela communities in Rio de Janeiro where approximately 140,000 people live.
I recently started following the Facebook page ''Mare Vive'' [Mare Lives] months ago, in a vague effort to grasp what it would feel like living in Rio favela. To keep residents safe, the page shares information and live updates on police on police raids in the community.
Almost every morning, around 5 a.m., I receive their daily forecast. Will everything be calm in the favela today? Or are the tanks already rolling in? It's almost like a weather forecast - if only you could trade raincoats with bulletproof vests.
And yet I can shut down the computer and forget all about it right away. If I want to, Residents can't.
In 2019, according to a report by the nonprofit group Redes de Mark, there were 30 police operations in the complex - one every 9.4 days - that lasted almost 300 hours and left 34 people dead. [None of them were white.] Twenty four school days have been lost. [School is cancelled when there's a police raid.]
''I don't know what it would take for the authorities to understand that people who live in favelas are just as deserving as anyone else when it comes to eating their toast in peace, and, well, staying alive. But I have suggestion:
Lets install a sign on every rooftop and every street : ''HUMAN BEINGS, DON'T SHOOT..''
The Sadness of this research on Brazil, past and present, continues. The World Students Society thanks author Vanessa Barbara, editor literary website A Hortilica and the author of two novels and nonfiction books in Portuguese.
With respectful dedication to the Leaders, Grandparents, Parents, Students, Professors and Teachers of Brazil, and then the world.
See Ya all prepare and register for Great Global Elections of The World Students Society : wssciw.blogspot.com and Twitter - !E-WOW! -The Ecosystem 2011:
''' Account - Acclaim '''
I recently started following the Facebook page ''Mare Vive'' [Mare Lives] months ago, in a vague effort to grasp what it would feel like living in Rio favela. To keep residents safe, the page shares information and live updates on police on police raids in the community.
Almost every morning, around 5 a.m., I receive their daily forecast. Will everything be calm in the favela today? Or are the tanks already rolling in? It's almost like a weather forecast - if only you could trade raincoats with bulletproof vests.
And yet I can shut down the computer and forget all about it right away. If I want to, Residents can't.
In 2019, according to a report by the nonprofit group Redes de Mark, there were 30 police operations in the complex - one every 9.4 days - that lasted almost 300 hours and left 34 people dead. [None of them were white.] Twenty four school days have been lost. [School is cancelled when there's a police raid.]
''I don't know what it would take for the authorities to understand that people who live in favelas are just as deserving as anyone else when it comes to eating their toast in peace, and, well, staying alive. But I have suggestion:
Lets install a sign on every rooftop and every street : ''HUMAN BEINGS, DON'T SHOOT..''
The Sadness of this research on Brazil, past and present, continues. The World Students Society thanks author Vanessa Barbara, editor literary website A Hortilica and the author of two novels and nonfiction books in Portuguese.
With respectful dedication to the Leaders, Grandparents, Parents, Students, Professors and Teachers of Brazil, and then the world.
See Ya all prepare and register for Great Global Elections of The World Students Society : wssciw.blogspot.com and Twitter - !E-WOW! -The Ecosystem 2011:
''' Account - Acclaim '''
Good Night and God Bless
SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless
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