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    Default Brazil: violence in (merged thread)

    IHT, 11 Apr 07: Rio governor requests Brazil army intervention to quell violence
    Gov. Sergio Cabral Filho has formally requested that the army intervene to contain the violence that has been spiraling out of control in Brazil's most famous city....

    ...Silva planned to meet with army officials Thursday about the operation. Rio — one of the world's most violent — is scheduled to host the Pan American Games in July....

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    Reuters, 6 Nov 07: Brazil Busts Death Squads After Wave of Killings
    Police in northeastern Brazil arrested 34 people, including policemen, lawyers and merchants, on Tuesday on charges of participating in death squads believed to have killed hundreds of people.

    The groups operated in Recife, capital of Pernambuco state and the most violent of Brazil's crime-ridden cities based on per capita homicides.....

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    JSOU, Sep 09: Irregular Warfare: Brazil's Fight Against Criminal Urban Guerrillas
    In this monograph Major General Alvaro de Souza Pinheiro contributes to the discussion of urban guerrillas, their impact on society, and the role of the armed forces in countering criminal elements. The rise of urban guerrillas is a result of an evolution in command and control capabilities, weapons, and doctrine that has given them strong influence over the daily lives of citizens living in neighborhoods where government support and control is limited or absent. The favelas (ghettos, slums) of Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo are ready examples that provide the setting for General Alvaro’s monograph. The urban guerrilla, however, is emblematic of a wider-felt problem, not limited to Brazil. What makes General Alvaro’s monograph compelling is that this Brazilian story has universal application in many locales that are under-governed and under-supported by constituted authorities.
    Last edited by Jedburgh; 01-04-2011 at 02:13 AM. Reason: Updated link.

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    Council Member davidbfpo's Avatar
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    Default Brazil police step up Rio gang violence drive

    The BBC has had a couple of reports on a new police "surge" (sorry, could not resist that) into gang territory; link:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-11838472

    There are linked stories and the Marine Corps have provided the police with logistic support and a small number of APCs (M113 in the photos seen).
    davidbfpo

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    Council Member AdamG's Avatar
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    *Shudder*

    Justin Bieber has groupies where you'd least expect them. An army of Brazilian cops raided the Rio headquarters of one of the country's most notorious drug gangs.
    http://www.1035superx.com/cc-common/...rticle=7889026
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    Council Member Tom Odom's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by AdamG View Post
    That is just so...wrong

    In too many ways

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    Default Interesting Film

    I recently saw an interesting movie on comcast on demand, possibly called, "Elite Unit" about a law enforcement group known as BOPE in Brazil which is like a self autonomous elite SWAT/SOF L.E. unit. They have a long operational leash to put it mildly.

    Its not at the same level as the classic film, Battle of Algiers but its an interesting film. I researched it on the net and the director stated that while filming a torture scene that an actual BOPE member approached him and told him that the technique was all wrong and showed him the proper way to execute it without leaving marks on the victim. The director felt it was their way of showing they didn't care about the film being made. Its worth watching if you can find it.

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    Default Police in Rio Try War Tactics

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...010502741.html

    "They probably thought we were going to leave like usual," Cunha said from the school, which has become the headquarters of Rio's latest experiment in urban policing. "But this time we're staying."

    The police have regularly launched large operations in Brazil's favelas, or slums, in their battle against drug gangs over the years, but authorities say the occupation of Santa Marta, a relatively small, contained neighborhood, is part of a new approach, a pilot project for the future of crime fighting in this violent city. Brazilian police officers are attempting counterinsurgency tactics similar to those used by U.S. soldiers in Iraq -- setting up small bases occupied around the clock inside violent neighborhoods, developing intelligence by living among their adversaries, and using government funds to rebuild broken areas and generate goodwill.

    "Santa Marta is like a laboratory for policing a conflict area," said Antônio Roberto Cesário de Sá, a senior official in the office of the public security secretary of Rio de Janeiro. "The idea is to rescue a territory that until now has belonged to a drug-dealing gang."

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    Council Member davidbfpo's Avatar
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    Default War Tactics?

    Sorry, this reported experiment in Rio is not an application of "new" COIN war tactics. This is a tried and tested police tactic, which lives under all manner of names: sector policing, neighbourhood policing etc. IIRC this method has appeared in the USA, the snag was keeping the assigned officers living in their patrol base.

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    i pwnd ur ooda loop selil's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by davidbfpo View Post
    Sorry, this reported experiment in Rio is not an application of "new" COIN war tactics. This is a tried and tested police tactic, which lives under all manner of names: sector policing, neighbourhood policing etc. IIRC this method has appeared in the USA, the snag was keeping the assigned officers living in their patrol base.

    davidbfpo

    Absolutely correct.

    In several western states to this day Deputy Sheriffs officers live in their communities as a requirement of the job. Though that is starting to wane as a technique of controlling crime.
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    Default Agree, but

    Dave, I agree it isn't new, but I do think you can make an argument that it is under utilized, and that most "modern" police forces are not equipped or trained to do this. I believe there are still several neighborhoods in the U.S. alone (as compared to globally) that are controlled by gangs, and in these areas the police at most do drive by policing or respond to 911 calls.

    The way the article read, it sounds like they established a combat outpost (with the emphasis on combat) in the heart of bad guy turf in order to get control of the turf. They had to fight their way in, then put in sufficient force to hold. Makes you wonder where the bad guys went, and if the next fight will be harder. I'm not a law enforcement expert, but I haven't read about too many cases where police have done this type of operations before. I think the NYC police did some surge operations, and used large buses as their police outposts?

    Anyway I thought it was of interest for a few reasons, one you captured, the other is nature and degree of the criminal threat in many places.

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    Council Member William F. Owen's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bill Moore View Post
    The way the article read, it sounds like they established a combat outpost (with the emphasis on combat) in the heart of bad guy turf in order to get control of the turf. They had to fight their way in, then put in sufficient force to hold. Makes you wonder where the bad guys went, and if the next fight will be harder.
    I read something about this... Oh yes. Carl Von Clausewitz. On War.
    Infinity Journal "I don't care if this works in practice. I want to see it work in theory!"

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    - If we can double the ratio of kills per contact, we will soon put an end to the shooting in Malaya.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bill Moore View Post
    Makes you wonder where the bad guys went, and if the next fight will be harder. I'm not a law enforcement expert, but I haven't read about too many cases where police have done this type of operations before. I think the NYC police did some surge operations, and used large buses as their police outposts?
    From different aspects it is a fairly common tactics of United States domestic law enforcement. Often called emphasis patrols or similar catchy titles (my favorite is wolf packs). Emphasis patrols can be sweeps for prostitution, drugs, or juvenile (gang) campaigns. Emphasis patrols usually last a few weeks at most. They usually sweep up some percentage of the criminal target population, and then create dislocation of some percentage, and some percentage hibernates until the sweep is done.

    The problems with long term emphasis patrols is that the justice system has a single input, various storage mechanisms, and various outputs. Hundreds of cops arresting hundreds of crooks all process through just a few judges and courts. So anything like a "surge" (ick) in domestic law enforcement won't work for very long. Law enforcement is not a military operation regardless of all those M4 toting SWAT teams who keep trying to "wage war" on crime.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bill Moore View Post
    Dave, I agree it isn't new, but I do think you can make an argument that it is under utilized, and that most "modern" police forces are not equipped or trained to do this. I believe there are still several neighborhoods in the U.S. alone (as compared to globally) that are controlled by gangs, and in these areas the police at most do drive by policing or respond to 911 calls.

    The way the article read, it sounds like they established a combat outpost (with the emphasis on combat) in the heart of bad guy turf in order to get control of the turf. They had to fight their way in, then put in sufficient force to hold. Makes you wonder where the bad guys went, and if the next fight will be harder. I'm not a law enforcement expert, but I haven't read about too many cases where police have done this type of operations before. I think the NYC police did some surge operations, and used large buses as their police outposts?

    Anyway I thought it was of interest for a few reasons, one you captured, the other is nature and degree of the criminal threat in many places.
    I'm not a law enforcement expert either, but I would offer that the situation is Rio is a bit different than in the US, even in some of the very bad parts of the US.

    Most of the slums in Rio are like de facto independent fiefdoms run by the gangs. It goes beyond being the gang's "turf" where they represent just a physical danger to officers. It most cases they are not only the "government," but they also provide services, administer justice, charge rent, etc... Some members of the police have formed their own extralegal militias that seize territory and administer the favelas in much the same way, but without (official) government support.

    I understand there is no fine line, but knowing some folks who are cops in some dangerous areas of the US and having spent some a number of months in Rio I think there are probably some elements of COIN not present in US community policing. Especially if we are talking about the Mexico situation being a small war, which I think probably has more in common here.

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    Council Member AdamG's Avatar
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    The government of Brazil sent 3,000 troops into Rocinha, the hillside shanty town overlooking Rio de Janeiro, in an effort to drive out crime and violence in advance of the 2014 World Cup.

    They encountered little resistance as they moved in at 4 a.m., The New York Times reported, despite the neighborhood's "notorious" reputation. Indeed, the move by the government, blessed with the dissonant formal name "Shock of Peace," is as much public relations as police work. Troops alone won't correct bad infrastructure and endemic poverty.
    http://www.theatlanticwire.com/globa...st-slum/44921/
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    Rio: the fight for the favelas - Brazil’s most famous city has launched a huge offensive against drug gangs and militias before the next World Cup and Olympics, By Misha Glenny. FT Magazine, 2 November 2012.
    The integration strategy and efforts by the state and city hall are divided into two stages: UPP Policing and UPP Social.

    The first stage sees crack forces storm the favelas in an intentionally intimidating act of urban shock and awe, followed by the establishment of a large civilian police presence inside the favelas for the first time in history.

    When occupying Complexo de Alemão, in November 2010, the authorities decided against taking any chances: the army and navy were deployed to secure the perimeter of the entire area as the special forces went in search of the drug kingpins.

    Everybody knew that the pacification of two of the city’s largest favelas, Alemão and Rocinha, was of overriding significance. “We chose those territories that were the critical nodes of criminal activity quite specifically, by assessing the fire power of the factions running them,” explains Beltrame. The greater the firepower, the higher up the list for pacification.
    Interesting read.
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    Another wave of attacks in Sao Paulo has been going on. Bus burned today, with all attacks emanating by one single criminal organization that has some readily identifiable political objectives:

    http://noticias.uol.com.br/album/alb...to=2#fotoNav=2

    The leaders of the said organization have been commanding murders of law enforcement agents. 90 so far this year.

    A very shocking video of an attack against a police sergeant:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kalcxLjh4ts

    These murders were commanded from within prison cells. This was an electoral year, and similar attacks have been constant in every other electoral year.
    Last edited by ccmaximus; 11-09-2012 at 05:39 AM.

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    Default A band-aid to fix a dysfunctional city.

    A critical comment on 'Pacifying Rio', which has some interesting points I have not seen before. For example the Brazilian foreign policy goals being expressed in their military role in the UN Haiti mission, with the lessons learnt coming home.

    Link:http://www.opendemocracy.net/opensec...-security-oper
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    Default The harsher side of Brazil

    Amidst the limited reporting here of the protests against bus fare rises and then with a wider theme a report on how Brazilian police can act:
    A security force operation in northern Rio de Janeiro has left eight people dead, as the country struggles to contain a popular uprising partly fueled by police brutality.
    I suspect this fact may explain a lot:
    a Special Operations Battallion (BOPE) sergeant was killed
    Not seen these figures before, they are rather sobering:
    Police in Rio and Sao Paulo, Brazil's two biggest cities, have killed 11,000 people in the last ten years - in 2008 one person was killed for every 23 arrested, compared to the US police average of one death per 37,000 people arrested.
    Link:http://www.insightcrime.org/news-bri...favela-protest

    If you're thinking of visiting Brazil for the World Cup in 2014, time to rethink?
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    Council Member davidbfpo's Avatar
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    Default Out of the mountains into the slums?

    This thread is at the suggestion of Flagg. Using David Kilcullen's latest book and theory - what will happen in Brazil's slums / megacities / favelas in the next two years when two international football events take place there?

    Can the Kilcullen theory be applied? So watch and comment on Brazil as an example.

    There are a number of relevant threads. Notably The David Kilcullen Collection:http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/...ad.php?t=12934 and the Brazil violence in (merged thread), which has a number of news reports on the usually para-military policing of the favelas:http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/...ead.php?t=2602

    There is the small example of into the slums cited by Kilcullen, the multinational effort to detain a drug lord in Jamaica:http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/...ad.php?t=10451

    Mexico of course already has an increasingly violent problem:http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/...ead.php?t=5370

    It is worth reading a recent SWJ article A Proposed Framework for Appreciating Megacities: A US Army perspective:http://smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art...-perspective-0 One of the authors commented:
    We've looked at the recent favela ops, and certainly there is a lot to study there.
    Flagg's post will come first after the thread is created.
    davidbfpo

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