Nearly 800 people have been killed by police in the Brazilian state of Rio de Janeiro over the past nine months as raids remain a frightening routine for favela families – despite a Supreme Court ruling to stop attacks during the coronavirus pandemic.
New figures show that 797 people died in the state of Rio between June 2020 and March 2021, 85% in the city of Rio and surrounding metropolitan region.
The court suspended police attacks in Brazilian favelas in June 2020, amid public outcry after the death of 14-year-old João Pedro Matos Pinto, who was shot in the back during a police raid.
Between June and September, police attacks dropped by 64% compared to the average for the same period in previous years, according to a report by Geni, a research group at Federal Fluminense University (UFF).
But the invasion resumed in October, one month after acting governor Cláudio Castro took office and quickly doubled to 38 in October, compared with the previous month. In the next nine months, the communities of Greater Rio had an average of nearly one raid each day, the report showed.
“This is absurd,” said Daniel Hirata, author of the report and professor of sociology at UFF. ‘The Supreme Court makes a decision and political authorities do not respect it and deliberately violate it. This is a risk to the rule of law in Brazil. ”
The Supreme Court on Friday launched a two-day public hearing on police raids to draw up a new plan to reduce police killings and human rights violations.
Police in the state of Rio de Janeiro kill almost twice as many people each year as in the USA. Most victims are black and brown.
A police spokesman said the raids were launched in response to violent disputes over the area between warring gangs, claiming they focus on ‘preserving lives and strictly following legal precepts’.
But Hirata argued that ‘police attacks, in addition to being lethal, are also not effective against crime’, and the report shows that such actions are not related to the reduction of criminal activity.
A resurgence in police violence took place after the 2018 election as governor of Wilson Witzel in Rio, campaigning for a promise to “slaughter” criminals. Witzel was forced out of office at the end of August 2020 after a corruption scandal, but his acting successor pursued a similar frontal attack on drug gangs – and ordinary citizens are caught in the crossfire.
Police violence has also exacerbated the disastrous impact of coronavirus on the most vulnerable in Brazil. A study published by the Lancet showed that inequality was a greater factor in Covid deaths in Brazil than age, health status and other risk factors, where more than 355,000 died from the disease.
Favela-based groups delivering food and detergent packages during the outbreak say they have been forced to halt operations due to police attacks.
A 36-year-old female schoolteacher, who asked for safety reasons not to be named, handed out kits and listened to daily struggles in her community Parque Esperança (or Hope Park), in Belford Roxo, Greater Rio.
“I visited households and saw people living below the poverty line,” she said. “And in the midst of this crisis, we have been living in a state of war since January.”
The current wave of violence began when police launched a raid to erect an outpost in a community in Belford Roxo, resulting in retaliation from gangs.
Since then, the sound of police helicopters has been constant, and shootings break out day and night.
Fransérgio Goulart, the head of a local activist group, said that although official figures said nine people had been killed in the community, locals said more than thirty shots had been fired since January.
‘One case that shocked me was the case of a young man who was shot dead while walking home from work. His mother spent hours with her son on her lap waiting for the body to be removed. The whole family left the community after that, “she said.