(Courtesy of the guardian.com)
When you hear the words “Rio de Janeiro” most people think of the beach, sun, and samba. However, a much darker and violent side of Brazil has been exposed by a study revealing that in Brazil five people die every day due to police actions. The Brazilian Public Safety Forum released their study via the newspaper O Globo indicating that in 2012 the police killed 1,890 civilians.
Lawyer and specialists on the issue, Theodomiro Dias, explains this alarming reality to O Globo: “There is a plurality of factors to explain these numbers. The police are traditionally violent; there is a culture of violence in the departments and control methods of conduct do not exist.” He continues to explain: “For example, in Sao Paulo in simple change in the Secretary of Public Safety has made all the difference by reducing the level of deaths per month to 64 per cent.”
Sao Paulo, however, tops the list with 563 cases of civilians killed by police. Rio de Janeiro follows next with 415 cases. The confrontations with civilians in 2012 led to the casualty of 89 police officers, according to the report.
The Executive Director of the Brazilian Public Safety Forum Samira Bueno also provided another interesting statistic to O Globo: “In the United States, a country with a population 60 per cent greater than Brazil, 410 people died at the hands of police officers last year.” Although Ms. Bueno is using the number to highlight the enormous violent problem Brazil is facing; the number of 410 deaths at the hands of cops in the United States is disturbing for a department whose motto is “Protect and Serve.”
My Beat: Latin America 