Public statement :: Veiled death sentence

Execution of youths by Military Police in Rio de Janeiro raises the urgency of police reform

Execution of youths by Military Police in Rio de Janeiro raises the urgency of police reform

With 50 shots from their rifles, the Military Police in Rio de Janeiro took the lives of five young men who were driving in the neighborhood of Costa Barros, in the north of the city, in the early hours of Sunday morning, November 29. Roberto de Souza, 16, Carlos Eduardo da Silva de Souza, 16, Cleiton Correa de Souza, 18, Wilton Esteves Domingos Junior, 20, and Wesley Castro Rodrigues, 25, were caught in an armed police ambush targeting local drug traffickers.

In addition to being arrested for murder, the four police officers involved in the shooting will also be charged with evidence tampering, since they allegedly doctored the crime scene to make it look like shots had been fired by the victims – two of whom were only 16 years old, according to the civil police investigation.

Conectas sympathizes with the families of the victims and demands that those responsible for the crime are investigated and punished. As far as the organization is concerned, the problem extends far beyond what José Mariano Beltrame, the Rio de Janeiro state public security secretary, described as “character flaws” of the officers involved. Instead, the murders follow a standard police procedure that constitutes a real “death sentence” against black youth in the poor urban outskirts.

According to research from the State University of Rio de Janeiro, the 41st Military Police Battalion – where the officers accused of the murders in Costa Barros were stationed – has topped the ranking of murders in supposed confrontations with the police for the past three years. This large number of killings and personal vindictiveness is only possible due to the military mindset – of war against the enemy – under which Brazil’s security forces are trained.

Against this backdrop of brutality and recklessness, it is essential for the public authorities to respond to the requests for structural changes that have long been demanded by organized civil society:

 

1. 1. Police oversight by the Public Prosecutor’s Office. The Rio de Janeiro State Public Prosecutor’s Office must do more to fulfill its constitutional role in the oversight of police activity and to rigorously and accurately investigate all the circumstances surrounding the deaths caused by police officers.

 

1. 1. Reform of the model of militarized policing. There is an urgent need to reform the model of militarized policing that still views citizens as potential enemies to combat. This structural reform should be underpinned by at least four principles: the full-cycle of police work; a single career path; non-military policing; and independent ombuds offices and internal affairs units.

 

1. 1. Ending the ‘resistance’ classification. Standards urgently need to be adopted to help put a stop to massacres by the police. The approval of Bill 4471, which has been pending for two years in the Lower House of Congress, could represent an important step in this direction. The bill, drafted by the congressmen Paulo Teixeira, Fabio Trad, Protógenes Queiroz and Miro Teixeira, establishes that inquiries be opened into all cases of death caused by the police. It also requires the preservation of the crime scene, prevents the police from transporting victims and substitutes the expressions ‘act of resistance’ and ‘resistance followed by death’ in police reports, which were created during the military dictatorship, for ‘death resulting from police intervention’. “The bill is a step towards ending this ‘death sentence’ that, while banned by the Constitution, is still applied on the streets of poor neighborhoods, particularly against young black people. They are the main victims of ‘resistance’ killings – a term filled with symbolism in that it denies the most vulnerable population the right to life and to a defense,” said the lawyer Rafael Custódio, coordinator of the Justice program at Conectas.

 

Without a real commitment to these structural changes – recommended in the final report of the National Truth Commission and the subject of the Constitutional Amendment Proposal No. 51 of 2013 (drafted by Congressman Lindbergh Farias) – the police in Brazil and, more specifically, in the state of Rio de Janeiro, will continue to rank among the most violent in the world.