Brazilians have taken to the streets of several regional capitals across the country this week to demand justice after numerous cases of serious police brutality. As Rio de Janeiro mourned the death of more than 20 people on Tuesday during a police operation in a favela, the country was shocked by the death of a man on Wednesday, asphyxiated after being placed in the trunk of a car from police.
New wave of indignation in Brazil after serious cases of police violence. Days after a police operation that left at least 23 dead in Rio de Janeiro, footage of the murder of a man asphyxiated in the trunk of a car on Wednesday May 25 has gone viral on the internet and outraged rights defenders of Man. The next day, many demonstrations took to the streets in different Brazilian cities to demand justice.
In Brasilia and São Paulo, protesters gathered outside the local headquarters of the Federal Traffic Police (PRF). On Friday May 27 and Saturday May 28, demonstrators pounded the pavement in Rio de Janeiro as well. Organized by the collective Pelas Vidas Negras (« For black lives »), the participants displayed posters featuring slogans from the Black Lives Matter movement and the last words of the American George Floyd, killed during a police check in Minneapolis, May 25, 2020.
Two years later, to the day, the Brazilian Genivaldo de Jesus Santos died, asphyxiated after being placed in the trunk of a PRF car during a routine check in the small town of Umbauba, in the State of Sergipe (Northeast). Officers later admitted to using a spray can and tear gas inside the car after putting the 38-year-old inside. According to the authorities, these were « immobilization techniques and instruments with low offensive potential » to deal with the « aggressiveness » of the victim.
Demonstrators took over the surroundings of the scene of the tragedy, according to the G1 site, then also displayed posters in front of the headquarters of the federal police in Aracaju, capital of Sergipe.
The images of this new episode of police violence won social networks, while Brazil already deplored the death of at least 23 people during a police operation on Tuesday May 24 in Vila Cruzeiro, a favela in Rio de Janeiro. According to the investigative site The Intercept, the PRF also contributed to this raid, which was supposed to combat drug trafficking and became the second deadliest in the city’s history.
Authorities in Rio claimed the majority of the victims were criminals, killed because they allegedly clashed with police officers, according to the Estadão de São Paulo. But according to an investigation by this daily, at least 11 victims, including a 16-year-old boy, had no criminal history and were not known to the police.
Suspicions of « torture » and « summary executions »
Experts and activists accuse the police officers involved of « torture » and « summary executions ». « We saw a corpse whose face was covered with a white powder, which looked like cocaine, » testified to AFP Rodrigo Mondego, head of the human rights commission at the Rio bar. « Those who killed this person smeared cocaine on his face and possibly made him eat it. It’s an act of torture, » he said.
« We also suspect a large number of summary executions. Witnesses told us that men who had surrendered to the police were shot in the woods » on the upper part of the favela, he said. According to this lawyer, the report of the police operation alone reinforces these suspicions of extrajudicial executions: « if we consult the statistics around the world, we will never see a shooting where more than 20 people die in a camp and none in the other ».
Faced with these accusations and the outcry caused by the operation, the Federal Prosecutor’s Office opened an investigation into « possible violations » of human rights perpetrated by agents. On Friday, May 27, at least 12 police officers who participated in the operation had testified and submitted their weapons for analysis, according to Estado de São Paulo.
According to the Rio de Janeiro Military Police, « the action [à Vila Cruzeiro] aimed to locate and arrest criminal leaders hiding in the community, including criminals from other states in the country. The BOPE and PRF teams were preparing for the raid when the criminals began firing shots at the upper part of the community,” the police statement continued. The PRF said it was participating in the raid. action because « criminal bosses lurking in the community » also operate « in crimes on federal highways. »
According to a favela resident, the shooting began at 3:40 a.m. on Tuesday and continued until at least 6 p.m., she told BBC Brazil.
The use of tear gas in a car, an « act of torture »
The death of Genivaldo de Jesus Santos could also be considered an « act of torture » by the PRF, according to Renato Sérgio de Lima, director-president of the Brazilian Public Security Forum. This because the police « have transformed a technique of restraint in open space into a practice which can be qualified as torture, because [la victime] was already under control, » said the expert, adding that tear gas « is not intended for individual use » and « can never be used in an enclosed space ».
In videos of the drama, which have been widely circulated, you can clearly see two helmeted PRF officers trying to close the trunk of a car on a man whose legs are sticking out. One of them briefly opens the side door, introduces an object, then thick white smoke escapes from the trunk, seeming to come from a tear gas canister. According to passers-by, the scene would have lasted more than thirty minutes, where onlookers express their horror, while another shouts: « They are going to kill him! »
The man moves his legs for about a minute, then becomes motionless. Officers then fold up his legs and close the trunk, ignoring the calls. Contrary to what the authorities say, the victim’s nephew told the daily O Globo that Genivaldo de Jesus Santos would have obeyed the agents and tried to « dialogue » with them, in particular by explaining to them that he suffered from mental problems.
FRP claimed in a tweet suspending the officers temporarily to investigate the case as part of disciplinary proceedings.
An anti-racist NGO had announced that it would sue the state, asking for compensation similar to that obtained by the family of George Floyd: 27 million dollars. And to justify: « because Genivaldo de Jesus Santos, like him, was also black, was killed by the police by asphyxiation, and on exactly the same date, with a difference of two years ». In a statement, the organization Human Rights Watch also expressed its « dismay ».
The deadliest police in the world, especially towards black Brazilians
Brazilian police are one of the biggest killers in the world: in 2021, more than 6,100 people died in police operations, an average of 17 per day, according to figures from a violence monitoring organization .
Among the victims of police operations in the state of Rio de Janeiro, 72% of them identified as black or mixed race, according to a study by the Institute of Public Security. In November 2020, the UN had already denounced « structural racism » in Brazil after the killing of a black Brazilian by a supermarket guard.
« Each police car has a small side slave ship »
For the columnist Eduardo Sakamoto, this drama is added « to the black genocide by bullets [et] by hunger », he revolted in an editorial published on the Uol news portal. According to him, the far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, wants to clear the police who kill criminals during operations , “encouraging [ainsi] massacres ».
Tuesday evening, after the operation in Vila Cruzeiro, the president congratulated the « warriors » of the police for having « neutralized at least 20 marginalized people linked to drug trafficking ». However, he did not comment on the death of Genivaldo de Jesus Santos.
For Danielle Sanchez, of the Black Women collective, the act is important to put an end to the abuses of the police, which lead to excess mortality of black people. Alluding to a popular song, the social worker told the G1 site: « It is very painful to see a scene where a black man is thrown into a police van. They have become the new slave ships ».
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