Military Police internal affairs office concludes that deaths in Paraisópolis resulted from police action

The office identifies operational flaws, but cites legitimate self-defense as an exemption from prosecution for police officers

In all, nine people died during the police action in Paraisópolis, in December 2019 (Photo: Daniel Arroyo/Ponte Jornalismo)

In a report released today, March 5, the Internal Affairs Office of the Military Police in São Paulo concluded that the deaths of nine people during the funk dance party in Paraisópolis in late 2019 resulted from the police action. The document points out that the police officers did not commit a crime and that they acted in legitimate self-defense, an argument that was used to request exemption from prosecution for the military police officers involved in the case.

Gabriel Sampaio, coordinator of the program to Combat Institutional Violence at Conectas, said that the report from the Internal Affairs Office is troubling and a bad sign for oversight of the use of force by public security officers.

“The Internal Affairs Office concluded that the police officers acted in legitimate self-defense, which is a way to exempt them from accountability for the abuses committed. This response, if adopted until the end of the investigations, is not consistent with the widely published images and the versions of the victims and witnesses, giving an unacceptable interpretation of a massacre,” he explained.

Moreover, Gabriel also noted that the role of the police in the operation in Paraisópolis conflicts with the duty of the public security forces to “protect the physical integrity of citizens who were participating in a cultural and leisure activity”.