{"id":24581,"date":"2015-10-06T12:37:52","date_gmt":"2015-10-06T15:37:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=24581"},"modified":"2016-01-25T15:06:46","modified_gmt":"2016-01-25T18:06:46","slug":"execution-in-providencia-highlights-growing-role-of-social-media-in-combating-police-violence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=24581","title":{"rendered":"Execution in Provid\u00eancia Highlights Growing Role of Social Media in Combating Police Violence"},"content":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas\"\"<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

On Tuesday, September 29, 17-year-old Eduardo Felipe Santos Victor was shot dead in the Provid\u00eancia<\/a> favela, in the Port Region<\/a> of Rio de Janeiro. <\/span>The official report released by the Military Police<\/a> after Santos\u2019 death <\/span>stated<\/span><\/a> that the adolescent died \u201c<\/span>after responding to the arrival of the police with gunfire,\u201d implying the killing constituted an act of self-defense by the policemen. However a graphic video shot by a local resident<\/a> and posted on social media documented police officers planting a gun on Santos’ body. <\/span><\/p>\n

In the video, five policemen are shown standing next to the body. One of the officers shoots a gun in the air, while another takes a weapon, cleans it, places it in Santos\u2019 hand and shoots it twice in order to leave gunpowder tracks. The woman that recorded the video <\/span>has reportedly been threatened by police<\/span><\/a>, and has been <\/span>offered protection<\/span><\/a> by the Civil Police\u2019s Homicide Division.<\/span><\/p>\n

The video was posted on the same day shortly after the shooting and quickly went viral. By nightfall, the\u00a0five officers involved were arrested and it was announced they will\u00a0be charged with \u201cprocedural fraud\u201d for altering a crime scene. The lawyer defending three of the five policemen claime<\/a><\/span>d<\/span><\/a> the shots were fired to unload the weapon<\/a> and safely transport Santos\u2019 body, but Homicide Division\u2019s Andr\u00e9 Leiras found this version to be incompatible with the crime scene and statements given by the other two officers. Later that day, Tuesday September 29, it was reported that Military Police officer <\/span>Paulo Roberto da Silva had confessed to shooting Santos<\/a>. And by morning<\/a>\u00a0Civil Police chief Fernando Veloso\u00a0had announced\u00a0that from now on all “self-defense” killings by police will be investigated\u00a0by the Homicide Division\u00a0which previously only handled cases achieving high visibility.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"17-year-old<\/a><\/p>\n

An anonymous witness stated<\/a><\/span> that Santos surrendered before he was killed. The witness said Santos had a gun but did not fire and had his hands raised when the police officers\u00a0shot him. He said: \u201cHe should have been arrested, yes. But not killed.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The <\/span>autopsy report<\/span><\/a> released on October 1 revealed that Santos was shot while lying on the ground. According to the report, wounds show that the youngster fell down after being kicked, punched or hit with a rifle butt, and only later shot.<\/span><\/p>\n

National and international media reaction<\/h3>\n

While the <\/span>killing of an 11 year old in Caju<\/span><\/a> by the Military Police only one week before was only minimally reported in the national press, and while it took the international media five\u00a0months to report<\/a> on the devastating eviction of Favela do Metr\u00f4<\/a> starting in 2010 following local reports<\/a>, Eduardo Santos\u2019 execution received widespread attention from both the national and international mainstream media immediately<\/a>. The evidence filmed by a community witness and quickly uploaded onto social media provoked local mass\u00a0news reporting<\/a> that included community perspectives and challenged the authorities\u2019 reactions<\/a>, as was also done by the <\/span>BBC<\/span><\/a><\/em>\u00a0and <\/span>The Telegraph<\/a><\/em>, showing a groundbreaking shift in the ability of\u00a0community-reported events to break and reach mass in moments.<\/span><\/p>\n

The vital role\u00a0of social media in this case was recognized in <\/span>The Guardian<\/em>‘s report,<\/span><\/a> which highlighted<\/span> that although execution-style killings are commonplace, it is only \u201cwhen incidents are filmed that justice is done.\u201d Indeed, the fast dissemination of the video on social networks put intense pressure on Rio\u2019s authorities to react to the increasing outrage expressed online. Provid\u00eancia residents took to the streets to express their rage and Santos’ funeral on Wednesday, September 30 developed into a protest staged in front of <\/span>Central do Brasil train station.<\/span><\/p>\n

The role of video & social media<\/h3>\n

Eduardo Santos’ death and the video proving police corruption<\/a> and brutality<\/a> has thrown a spotlight on the role of social media in reporting police violence<\/a> and on the importance of video recording in order to show evidence of grave human rights<\/a> violations. <\/span><\/p>\n

Raull Santiago, an influential<\/a> organizer from the Alem\u00e3o<\/a> community media collective\u00a0<\/span>Coletivo Papo Reto<\/span><\/a>, posted a nine-step flyer<\/a> explaining how to effectively film police violence in the favelas<\/span>. The guide advises residents to film single-shot videos, record horizontally to include more information, highlight relevant details (faces, ID numbers, weapons, license plates, etc.) and include proof of the incident’s time and location. <\/span><\/p>\n

The participation\u00a0of residents in filming such events is on the rise. During a police incursion in Alem\u00e3o on September 30, Raull’s thread<\/a> included\u00a0comments from community members\u00a0like “Residents, charge your mobiles and keep your cameras active. The best way to combat abuses, is showing everyone with photos and videos!” and “All with cameras in hand, may God protect us all!”. <\/span><\/p>\n

The guide emphasizes that recording police officers in public spaces is a right granted by the Brazilian constitution but it is important to prioritize safety and to evaluate the possible risks that filming might entail:<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Coletivo<\/a><\/p>\n

The recent violence in Provid\u00eancia exists within the broader context of militarization of Rio\u2019s favelas. The day following Santos’ death, <\/span>Coletivo Papo Reto posted<\/a> that in the majority of Rio\u2019s \u201cpacified<\/a>\u201d favelas, the only representation of the State is the Military Police: \u201cWe\u2019re constantly told that we must abide by the laws of this country, that we have to be \u2018good citizens.\u2019 Shouldn\u2019t the arrival of State services be the first example of \u2018compliance with the law?\u2019\u201d They also criticized the\u00a0authorities’ claim that the tampering of the crime scene at\u00a0Santos’ killing was\u00a0an isolated event: “<\/span>How many isolated cases make a scandal?”<\/span><\/p>\n

This year alone 459 deaths<\/a> have been registered by police as self defense killings, an average of 57 per month and a 30.4% increase<\/a> over last year.\u00a0Were it not for the video documenting police interference with the scene, Santos’ execution would have been registered as another such death. In light of this, a petition<\/a> has been started to demand the creation of external control mechanisms to investigate killings by Rio’s Military and Civil Police, which are currently investigated by the police itself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas On Tuesday, September 29, 17-year-old Eduardo Felipe Santos Victor was shot dead in the Provid\u00eancia favela, in the Port Region of Rio de Janeiro. The official report released by the Military […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":90,"featured_media":24584,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1294,1277,1288,1290,336,1329],"tags":[1087,1606,19,25,23,1900,918,15,17,16,148,18,144,796,268,1385],"writer":[1806,1786],"translator":[],"illustrator":[],"photographer":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-24581","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-communitymedia","8":"category-uppwatch","9":"category-highlight","10":"category-civilsociety","11":"category-violations","12":"category-by-international-observers","13":"tag-voicesfromsocialmedia","14":"tag-coletivo-papo-reto","15":"tag-favela-do-metro","16":"tag-human-rights","17":"tag-mass-media","18":"tag-media-narrative","19":"tag-military-police","20":"tag-pacifying-police-unit","21":"tag-police-brutality","22":"tag-police-corruption","23":"tag-port-region","24":"tag-protest","25":"tag-morro-da-providencia","26":"tag-social-media","27":"tag-state-violence","28":"tag-violence","29":"writer-federico-olivieri","30":"writer-marta-ill-raga"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/90"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24581"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24581\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/24584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24581"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwriter&post=24581"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftranslator&post=24581"},{"taxonomy":"illustrator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fillustrator&post=24581"},{"taxonomy":"photographer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fphotographer&post=24581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}