{"id":52263,"date":"2019-03-22T07:00:01","date_gmt":"2019-03-22T10:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=52263"},"modified":"2019-06-12T17:50:55","modified_gmt":"2019-06-12T20:50:55","slug":"favela-activists-warn-of-increased-use-of-helicopter-fire-in-police-operations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=52263","title":{"rendered":"Favela Activists Warn of Increased Use of Helicopter Fire in Police Operations #VoicesFromSocialMedia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: right;\"><em><a href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/2UO3nLv\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Clique\u00a0aqui\u00a0para Por<\/strong><strong>tugu\u00eas<\/strong><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/2GwmWF7\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"20\" height=\"20\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-23766\" src=\"http:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/PT-e1439583827971.png\" \/><\/strong><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">At 3:14pm on Wednesday, March 20, residents of Rio de Janeiro\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/1DGhXtG\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Morro do Borel<\/a> favela in the city&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/1kZa3h9\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">North Zone<\/a> took to social media to report an intense shootout amid a large scale police operation. Soon, videos emerged of two police helicopters circling low, raining bullets from overhead. Residents took cover, worried that the operation had begun just as school let out.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/pdroherc\/status\/1108470439125413895\">https:\/\/twitter.com\/pdroherc\/status\/1108470439125413895<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere are a number of kids that travel through here with different [school] schedules,\u201d one resident told<em> RioOnWatch, <\/em>speaking on the condition of anonymity.\u00a0\u201cYou really worry about whether the structure of your house will be able to handle the power of high caliber rifles. I was horrified. I have two kids here at home.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Recently elected Rio state representative\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/2W5MYTc\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">M\u00f4nica Francisco<\/a>, herself a Borel native, immediately began fielding reports on Facebook, writing: \u201cOperation taking place now in Borel and communities in <a href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/1MwIQ3z\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tijuca<\/a>. Helicopters are deliberately shooting from above as children get out of school, placing them at risk [&#8230;] This is absurd! We refuse to mourn more dead!\u201d As of Wednesday evening, local sources reported four deaths resulting from the police operation.<\/p>\n<p><iframe style=\"border: none; overflow: hidden;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fmonicafranciscopsol%2Fposts%2F395460157938414&amp;width=620\" width=\"620\" height=\"813\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Less than three months into 2019, Rio de Janeiro has already seen at least seven separate operations in which police helicopters fired into favelas. In Rio, police operations\u00a0typically involve armed confrontations on the ground with drug traffickers in residential areas (as was the case of the Military Police operation in Complexo do Alem\u00e3o yesterday, Thursday, March 21, which left one resident with a <a href=\"https:\/\/glo.bo\/2HHmUK9\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">bullet wound in his hand<\/a>). Rio&#8217;s police force has been known to use helicopters solely for visual air support. Now, however, community leaders warn that the use of helicopters as firing platforms is becoming commonplace.<\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-52273\" title=\"Source: Fogo Cruzado, RioOnWatch\" src=\"http:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/table.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"475\" height=\"395\" srcset=\"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/table.png 538w, https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/table-300x249.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 475px) 100vw, 475px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think it\u2019s something new,\u201d says <a href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/1qtRfzL\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Thain\u00e3 de Medeiros<\/a> of <a href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/2fP7OmR\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Coletivo Papo Reto<\/a>, a human rights reporting group based in the favelas of\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/1rtohzT\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Complexo do Alem\u00e3o<\/a>, in Rio\u2019s North Zone. Recalling December 2014, when a police helicopter shot rubber bullets into a crowd to disperse protesters in the favela of <a href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/1T2BOXI\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Vila Cruzeiro<\/a>, Medeiros recounts sporadic reports of police helicopter fire over the past decade but warns that this sort of militarization is turning into regular policy.\u00a0\u201cSince then, it has only gotten worse. One time is already too much. And it\u2019s not like it has happened only once. We have seen it multiple times.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Only weeks ago, on the last Friday of carnival, Alem\u00e3o residents awoke to helicopter fire.\u00a0 Police scrambled through the favela of <a href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/1MOufRY\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Fazendinha<\/a> on foot while two armored Civil Police helicopters <a href=\"https:\/\/glo.bo\/2TYcexf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">fired from above<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Community human rights activist <a href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/1Nj8p7u\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Raull Santiago<\/a>, also of Coletivo Papo Reto, live-streamed the police operation on Facebook \u201cHere, look! Two helicopters, you can hear them. They\u2019re passing by the houses and firing.\u201d He tells his friends to huddle on the ground, yelling across the street to a neighbor, \u201cGet off that rooftop!\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"pt\">ESSE V\u00cdDEO \u00c9 MEU. ESSA VOZ SOU EU! ESSE TERROR SOU EU QUE VIVO, SOMOS N\u00d3S QUE VIVEMOS, POR CAUSA DE VOC\u00caS QUE APLAUDEM ESSA MERDA!<\/p>\n<p>QUE \u00d3DIO! &#x1f62d;&#x1f621; <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/16FXXZySwO\">pic.twitter.com\/16FXXZySwO<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Santiago, Raull. (@raullsantiago) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/raullsantiago\/status\/1103994336499433472?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 8, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The spike is recent, and human rights groups have only just begun to monitor gunfire from police helicopters. Local NGO\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/1ElmQXr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Redes de Desenvolvimento da Mar\u00e9<\/a> (Mar\u00e9 Development Networks) marks December 2017 as the beginning of consistent helicopter use. Lidiane Malanquini, coordinator of the Public Security and Access to Justice programs at Redes da Mar\u00e9, says that they began to survey data on helicopter use following a <a href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/2Ifz8X0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">violent police operation<\/a> in <a href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/1rNMXO3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Complexo da Mar\u00e9<\/a> in June 2018. That operation, involving helicopter gunfire, left seven dead\u2014including 14-year-old student <a href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/2Ifz6OC\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Marcos Vinicius da Silva<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>According to data from Redes da Mar\u00e9, the favelas of Complexo da Mar\u00e9 saw:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>33 police operations in 2016, three of which used helicopters but none of which saw helicopter fire;<\/li>\n<li>41 police operations in 2017, four involving helicopters, one of which involved helicopter fire; and<\/li>\n<li>16 operations in 2018, four of which employed helicopters\u2014with all four involving firing from helicopters into the favelas.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u201cThe use of helicopters as a firing platform places lives at risk and generates panic,\u201d says Malanquini. \u201cEvery time the government employs a new weapon of war as though it were the only means of combating criminal activity in the favelas, residents have to find new ways to protect themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Residents of Mar\u00e9&#8217;s favelas had already grown accustomed to militarized police violence with the use of the <a href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/2FiV2ck\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">armored personnel carrier<\/a>, a tank known locally as the <em>caveir\u00e3o, <\/em>or &#8220;big skull.&#8221; Police use such vehicles to speed into favelas unimpeded, often firing from the armored vehicles&#8217; gun ports. \u201cThese helicopters are even worse than the\u00a0tanks,\u201d says Mar\u00e9 resident Ana Maria, who describes the use of tanks\u00a0as a <a href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/2JDCwRA\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">tool of revenge<\/a>. \u201cThere have always been helicopters flying low overhead, but now they\u2019ve put two things together\u2026circling overhead and firing. I think that <a href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/2BABrnt\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">this is strategic<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Across town, in Rio\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/1kZa7gI\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">West Zone<\/a>, the favela of <a href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/1wwjhWi\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">City of God<\/a> has seen little helicopter activity until now, save a <a href=\"https:\/\/glo.bo\/2DGEpI9\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">2016 accident<\/a> when a Military Police helicopter fell nearby during a police operation, killing four police officers. \u201cThat helicopter crash was a major trauma for City of God,\u201d says a community resident, speaking on the condition of anonymity.<\/p>\n<p>Already in 2019, City of God has reported <a href=\"https:\/\/glo.bo\/2U18NWw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">two instances<\/a> of helicopter fire during police operations. Because of the favela\u2019s flat topography and open roads, police had previously typically entered on foot or via armored vehicle. Now, says the resident, things have begun to change.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;All of these things that other favelas are already familiar with, City of God is now getting to know too,\u201d they say. \u201cI think you can really see this change in City of God. In a certain way, for other peripheries, these armored helicopters have always been there. Now, they have come for us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>Clique\u00a0aqui\u00a0para Portugu\u00eas At 3:14pm on Wednesday, March 20, residents of Rio de Janeiro\u2019s Morro do Borel favela in the city&#8217;s North Zone took to social media to report an intense shootout amid a large scale <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=52263\" title=\"Favela Activists Warn of Increased Use of Helicopter Fire in Police Operations #VoicesFromSocialMedia\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":162,"featured_media":52275,"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":[1288,335,336,1329],"tags":[1087,804,231,2630,280,32,1455,2771,918,2800,37,17,2647,2481,1555,268,1350,31,21],"writer":[2609],"translator":[],"illustrator":[],"photographer":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-52263","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-highlight","8":"category-policies","9":"category-violations","10":"category-by-international-observers","11":"tag-voicesfromsocialmedia","12":"tag-borel","13":"tag-city-of-god","14":"tag-civil-police","15":"tag-complexo-da-mare","16":"tag-complexo-do-alemao","17":"tag-fazendinha","18":"tag-helicopter","19":"tag-military-police","20":"tag-monica-francisco","21":"tag-north-zone","22":"tag-police-brutality","23":"tag-revenge-response","24":"tag-police-violence","25":"tag-redes-de-desenvolvimento-da-mare","26":"tag-state-violence","27":"tag-tijuca","28":"tag-vila-cruzeiro","29":"tag-west-zone","30":"writer-edmund-ruge"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52263","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\/162"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=52263"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52263\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/52275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=52263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=52263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=52263"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwriter&post=52263"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftranslator&post=52263"},{"taxonomy":"illustrator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fillustrator&post=52263"},{"taxonomy":"photographer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fphotographer&post=52263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}