Brazil: violence in (merged thread)

[davidbfpo]

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?

[davidbfpo]

Not unexpected I fear, the opening passage from a NYT report:

A Brazilian police officer who spoke at a technology conference in New York on Tuesday about the potential of a new smartphone app to aid in the “pacification” of Rio de Janeiro’s lawless favelas was indicted the same day by prosecutors back home in connection with a notorious case of torture and murder by her unit in July.

Link:http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/201...new-york/?_r=0

The lady officer did return home. Yes being a police officer in such places is very hard, torture is not the response.

I had not realised the pacification effort was partly privately funded:

In August, the embattled Brazilian business tycoon Eike Batista — whose annual contributions of nearly $10 million had paid for U.P.P. equipment, uniforms, weapons, ammunition and training — withdrew his financial support for the project.

[davidbfpo]

The title comes from the closing line in the linked article, which was headlined:

Gang gunfights loom over Rio de Janeiro's World Cup preparations

It appears that not every favela likes pacification:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...parations.html

[davidbfpo]

Not what one expects, let alone the Brazilian military police:

Brazil's military police have killed six people in response to a gang assault against a Rio de Janeiro Police Pacification Unit, as the city's "pacification" program wavers in the face of regrouping gangs and a lack of progress in resolving social problems.Men in one of the cars opened fire, shooting two police officers, one of which later died.

Link:http://www.insightcrime.org/news-bri...cation-program