São Paulo Prosecutor´s Office denounces 13 military police for massacre in Paraisópolis and calls for “compensation for material and moral damages”
According to prosecutors, the operation at a funk party was a “serious violation of the rights ” of the people who were there.
Beco é grafitado para homenagear os jovens mortos em Paraisópolis. Foto: Rneva Rosa/Agência Brasil
On Monday (19) the São Paulo Public Prosecutor´s Office (MPSP) denounced 13 military police officers in connection with an action that led to the deaths of nine young people during a funk party in Paraisópolis, in the city of São Paulo (SP), at the end of 2019. Twelve military police officers (PMs) were accused of negligent homicide – in which a person takes the risk of killing. Another officer was accused of “the crime of putting lives in danger through explosion”. The 1st Jury Court of Barra Funda is to decide whether the denouncement will be accepted or not.
According to the Public Prosecutor´s Office, the police officers risked killing people during what was dubbed Operation Pancadão, at a location where there were hundreds of people. The denouncement calls on the Court “to set a minimum value for compensation of the material and moral damages caused by the infractions”.
In another passage of the text, the Prosecutor states that the operation was “a serious violation of the rights of the people who were at the party and of the people who live in Paraisópolis”. The prosecutors also stated that police officers attacked people with “blows with truncheons, bottles and iron bars and used pepper spray. In addition, one of the officers threw a mortar into the crowd”.
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According to Gabriel Sampaio, coordinator of the Conectas programme to Combat Institutional Violence, “the denouncement by the Public Prosecutor´s Office signals an important step towards the accountability of the officers who abused their power and used arbitrary force, which resulted in the massacre of young people, most of whom were black and underprivileged, from the Paraisópolis community”.
Remembering the Paraisópolis massacre
A violent action by the 16th Military Police Battalion in São Paulo against hundreds of people, who were at a funk party in Paraisópolis, left nine young people dead. They were between 14 and 23 years old. The location is made up of narrow streets, many of which are dead ends making it impossible for people to flee from the attacks by the police which led to considerable confusion and people being trampled.
In a report published in March 2020, the Military Police internal affairs office concluded that the deaths were the result of the police action but stated that the officers did not commit a crime and that they acted in legitimate defence, which is an argument used as justification for requesting the absolvement of the military police officers involved in the case.
In June 2021, however, the Civil Police indicted nine police officers for manslaughter, in other words, when there is no intention to kill, unlike the recent denouncement by the Public Prosecutor´s Office stating that the military police officers acted freely and did not comply with the guidelines set out by their corporation.
