Recife, the capital of Pernambuco, and Barreiras, in western Bahia, are the cities with the highest number of cases; data was obtained from the Brazilian Public Security Forum (FBSP)
In 322 Brazilian municipalities, all victims of death by police intervention (MDIP) were people of color, according to a survey by the Brazilian Forum for Public Safety (FBSP).
The cities of Recife, capital of the state of Pernambuco, and Barreiras, in the interior of Bahia, have registered 14 victims of MDIP. The municipalities of Santana, in Amapá, and VitĂłria, capital of EspĂrito Santo, have recorded 12 and 9 cases, respectively. In other capitals, such as Boa Vista, in Roraima, and Rio Branco, in Acre, black people have lost their lives to police actions on 7 and 6 occasions.
Dennis Pacheco, a researcher at the FBSP, believes the numbers demonstrate the racial selectivity that exists in Brazil and questions the role of police corporations in reducing these indicators.
“Corporations tell their members little or nothing about their racism. It is said that black people die for many reasons, without the police or sectors of society that purport to kill us, assuming the responsibility they have to actively select us, and increasingly, as a target, “he says.
The data used comes from the Anuário Brasileiro de Segurança Pública, published by the agency on the basis of data from the state departments of public safety. The numbers indicate 47,503 homicides in 2021, with 77.9% Black victims. The survey also indicated 6,145 MDIPs in the country and 84.1% of the victims are people of color.
Of this total of 322 cities with only black victims, only one case occurred in 214 municipalities for all of 2021. The data does not include municipalities in the states of Goiás, which did not present detailed numbers of deaths resulting from police interventions , and Ceará , where the database does not have MDIP data by municipality. IBGE works with the existence of 5,570 cities across the country. Excluding the municipalities of Goiás, with 246 cities, and Ceará, with 184, the study found information in 5,140 municipalities.
The survey shows that in 926 municipalities there were cases of deaths caused by security officers, in 597 there was at least one black victim, and in 322 cities all victims were black.
Dennis Pacheco believes that there are public safety diagnoses in Brazil and that there is a lack of political interest in reducing these indicators. For him, the new president-elect, Lula, will have to compromise with the reduction of violence.
“The role of the recently elected federal government is to make a definitive and intense commitment to the recognition of racism and the accountability of those who make it impossible for us to access rights, including the right to life. The implementation of these transformations requires coordination and articulation efforts, promoting and stimulating inclusive public policies focused on those who are most vulnerable to lethal violence, especially that promoted by state agents”.
The Victor Kawan case
Victor Kawan Souza da Silva, 17, was one of the victims of death following the police intervention in Pernambuco. The young black man was killed on December 11, 2021 in the SĂtio dos Pintos neighborhood, north of Recife, while he was on the back of the motorcycle that his friend Wendel Wilker Alves dos Santos was driving.
The family say they were on their way to a pharmacy, where Wendel allegedly bought medicine for his mother. During the journey, the carabinieri would have asked for the motorcycle to be stopped, but the motorcyclist would not have obeyed because he did not have a driving license and because the teenager was not wearing a helmet at the time.
In a statement, police said they had received reports that a young couple were committing robberies on a motorcycle. During the diligence, the agents would have identified the suspects, who, realizing the presence of the police, would have fired shots at them. Then a firefight took place.
However, investigations by the Civil Police of Pernambuco (PCPE) have denied the police version. Security cameras and witnesses who witnessed the action of the PMPE said that several shots were fired at the time of the incident after the officers started chasing the young men, who were unarmed.
Victor Kawan was shot in the chest. He was rescued in a Ready Service Unit (UPA), but could not sustain his wound and died at the scene. Wendel dos Santos was not injured.
“Victor Kawan was a boy with a very good heart, smiling, hardworking, who had everything ahead of him, but his life was taken in a brutal way,” said Victor Kawan’s father, JosĂ© Luiz Amâncio, in a recent conversation with Alma Preta Journalism.
Eleven months after the murder of the teenager, on October 28 the Court of Justice of Pernambuco (TJPE) issued, at the request of the Public Prosecutor, preventive arrest warrants against the two accused military police officers.
On October 7, corporals JosĂ© Monteiro Maciel de Lima and Clezia PatrĂcia de Souza Silva reported to the 11th Military Police Battalion and were sent to the Military Police Re-education Center (Creed), in Abreu and Lima, where they are serving the sentence.
Positioning
Alma Preta Jornalismo contacted the Social Defense Secretariat of Pernambuco (SDS-PE), which confirmed the data of the survey conducted by the FBSP for the state. In total, 105 people died as a result of clashes with public security officers in this territory in 2021.
In addition to the 14 black victims recorded in the capital of Pernambuco, 6 were in Paulista, 5 in JaboatĂŁo dos Guararapes, 2 in Olinda, 1 in Abreu e Lima and 1 in Camaragibe. These are the most populous municipalities in the Recife Metropolitan Region (RMR).
In a statement, the SDS-PE reported that Pernambuco “is among the states of the federation with the lowest rate of deaths from police intervention, according to the latest edition of the Brazilian Yearbook of Public Security. In the Northeast, Pernambuco has had a lower rate than that recorded by Bahia, Sergipe, Rio Grande do Norte and Ceará”. According to the position of the agency, in the State, “the security policy is guided by the Pact for Life (PPV), whose priority objective is the preservation of life and integrity of people. The priority of public safety in the State, therefore, it is the adoption of operations that use police intelligence to reduce the chances of armed confrontation. In the entire history of the PPV, no qualified repression operation triggered by the Civil Police has resulted in deaths”.
The Secretariat also stated that “in addition to the guidelines and objectives, the Pernambuco Police receives constant training, qualification and recycling for a technical performance and within the law, for the preservation of all lives. The effective participation of society and of the control bodies of the police activity, within the security policy, helps Pernambuco to have an increasingly citizen security”.
“The Military Police, through its Directorate of Social Articulation and Human Rights, has strengthened preventive actions and closer ties with the community, such as Maria da Penha, School, Neighborhood, Proerd, Koban Community Policing System and other initiatives The vast Majority of PMPE personnel and other state forces are personnel dedicated to social welfare. In their daily work, they put their lives at risk for the benefit of the population,” he adds. the positioning of the SDS-PE.
Finally, the agency concluded by stating that the Department of Home Affairs continues to investigate the MDIP cases. “It is worth mentioning that the state has a strong and active Inspectorate General of Social Defense, which rigorously investigates all cases of death as a result of police intervention. This work is carried out in parallel with the criminal investigation, at the head of the Police Civil of Pernambuco. When there is proof of the crime and the disciplinary infraction, the public agent is duly held liable in both areas, and can be excluded from his corporation”, he concludes.
The report also reached out to public safety secretariats in the other states it named—Acre, Amapá, Bahia, EspĂrito Santo, and Roraima—to question what states have done to reduce police lethality and the lethality of black people killed. due to the police Actions. The team also wondered how secretariats are using the database to reduce police-related deaths, but we didn’t hear back until the article was closed.
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Camila Luna is a writer at Gossipify, where she covers the latest movies and television series. With a passion for all things entertainment, Camila brings her unique perspective to her writing and offers readers an inside look at the industry. Camila is a graduate from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) with a degree in English and is also a avid movie watcher.
