{"id":34875,"date":"2022-02-18T14:11:38","date_gmt":"2022-02-18T14:11:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/conectas.org\/?post_type=noticia&p=34875"},"modified":"2022-03-03T14:10:06","modified_gmt":"2022-03-03T14:10:06","slug":"racism-in-the-police-force-why-black-people-are-stopped-more-frequently-by-the-police","status":"publish","type":"noticia","link":"https:\/\/conectas.org\/en\/noticias\/racism-in-the-police-force-why-black-people-are-stopped-more-frequently-by-the-police\/","title":"Racism in the police force: why black people are stopped more frequently by the police","content":"

When justifying one man\u2019s detention, the military police officer who made the arrest stated, <\/span>in the police report<\/span><\/a>, that he had seen \u201ca black individual in a typical drug trafficking scene\u201d. According to the S\u00e3o Paulo State Public Defender\u2019s Office, the justification given in the report was blatantly racist. <\/span><\/p>\n

The arresting officer said that when the man in question noticed the presence of the police, his countenance changed and he threw something on the ground. When searched, the officer said he found five vials of cocaine on his possession and several others on the ground around him. \u201c(\u2026) But because they had fallen on the ground, they ended up breaking and their content spilled out, making it impossible to collect the content because it is a very fine powder and in an amount that is impossible to recover.\u201d As such, the person was convicted by a lower court to seven years, eleven months and eight days in prison, in a secure facility, for possession of 1.53g of cocaine. <\/span><\/p>\n

After this conviction, the Public Defender\u2019s Office appealed to the Superior Court of Justice. In this court, the <\/span>sentence was reduced<\/span><\/a> to two years and 11 months of imprisonment and it permitted the prison sentence to be substituted by two restrictive measures, which enabled the man to be released. The rapporteur of the case, Justice Sebasti\u00e3o Reis Junior, however, understood that the police stop in question was based on skin color and voted for the recognition of an illegal search, but it was a losing vote. <\/span><\/p>\n

Common practice against black people <\/b><\/h2>\n

The situation is common in different parts of the country. According to a recent survey by Cesec (Center for Studies on Public Security and Citizenship of C\u00e2ndido Mendes University), black and mixed-race people represent 63% of those who say they have been stopped and searched by police in Rio de Janeiro, despite representing 48% of the city\u2019s population. Also according to the survey, black people are more likely to suffer abuse and humiliation during these situations. <\/span><\/p>\n

In an interview with <\/span>Ag\u00eancia Brasil<\/b><\/a>, the social scientist Silvia Ramos, coordinator of Cesec, said there is a racial culture in police activities and it starts with the humiliating stops and searches. The survey polled 739 people and included groups of young people from the favelas, couriers, app drivers, women and police officers. Following an analysis of age, gender, color, class and territory, the researchers identified the typical profile of the people who are stopped by the police: black men, up to 40 years of age, residents of favelas and urban outskirts, and with income of up to three times the minimum wage.<\/span><\/p>\n

Case now in the Supreme Court <\/b><\/h2>\n

The case of the man convicted in the lower court and appealed in the Superior Court of Justice is still not over. The Public Defender\u2019s Office is now challenging, in the Supreme Court, the legality of the evidence presented in the Individual <\/span>Habeas Corpus Case<\/span><\/a> No. 208240, filed in October 2020. The case received a request for amicus curiae status from Conectas in partnership with the organizations Land, Labor and Citizenship Institute and Black Initiative For a New Drug Policy. According to these organizations, police stops based on racial profiling is a common practice that urgently needs to be discussed. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cUnder the justification of \u2018reasonable suspicion\u2019, police officers mostly stop black people and search them without any concrete signs of criminal activity,\u201d reads the <\/span>document<\/b><\/a>. \u201cThis standard practice by government agents is closely linked to structural and institutional racism.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

According to Lays Ara\u00fajo, strategic policy articulator for the Black Initiative, it is important for the issue to appear at the center of the debate, because it highlights a complaint made some time ago by civil society. \u201cThere is always the benefit of the doubt, but this has never been extended to young black people,\u201d she said. \u201cThis justice system that operates based on established and well-defined racial profiling is the main driver of necropolitics. Because we know that these profiles are an address in the urban outskirts and black skin.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Read more: <\/strong><\/p>\n