{"id":55225,"date":"2019-08-29T10:21:12","date_gmt":"2019-08-29T13:21:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=55225"},"modified":"2019-08-30T15:39:38","modified_gmt":"2019-08-30T18:39:38","slug":"letters-from-the-children-of-mare-i-dont-like-helicopters-because-they-shoot-and-people-die","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=55225","title":{"rendered":"Letters from the Children of Mar\u00e9 Favela: \u201cI don\u2019t like helicopters because they shoot and people die.\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Clique Aqui para Portugu\u00eas<\/a>\u00a0<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

For the original article in Portuguese by Felipe Betim published in El Pa\u00eds click here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Children from the Complexo da Mar\u00e9 favelas describe the horrors of life in the crossfire, writing more than 1500 letters to the Rio Court of Justice urging them to reestablish directives for police operations in Mar\u00e9. In other favelas, six youth died<\/a> over a period of five days.<\/em><\/p>\n

The favela bleeds. \u201cI don\u2019t like helicopters because they shoot down and people die,\u201d wrote one child, whose name and age were not given, to the appellate judges at the Rio de Janeiro Court of Justice. The colored drawing accompanying the message shows a police helicopter with armed agents shooting toward the ground. There\u2019s a drug trafficker there, but there are kids too. They run<\/a>. They run in the drawing and in real life. \u201cThis is wrong,\u201d wrote the little resident of Mar\u00e9<\/a>, a grouping of 16 favelas in the city\u2019s North Zone<\/a>, home to nearly 140,000. More than 1,500 letters and drawings were collected by the NGO Redes de Desenvolvimento da Mar\u00e9<\/a> (Mar\u00e9 Development Networks) and sent to the Court on August 12 with a petition demanding the reinstitution of a Civil Public Action<\/a> that sets limits on police operations in Mar\u00e9. Accepted by the Court of Justice in mid-2017, the Action had helped reduce violence indicators throughout the following year. It was suspended in June 2019. On Wednesday, August 14, following the appeal from residents, the Action was reinstated, reestablishing minimum parameters for police actions, such as requiring the presence of an ambulance during operations and barring operations when students are on their way to and from school.<\/p>\n

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

The favela cries. On that same Wednesday, it was revealed that over a period of five days, six youths between the ages of 17 and 21 were shot and killed during police operations in communities around the state of Rio. Most suspect the police. Images of Crist\u00f3v\u00e3o Xavier de Brito<\/a>\u00a0spread throughout the country, the grandfather dressed in a t-shirt soaked in the blood of his 16-year old grandson Dyogo, who died in his arms. Dyogo was on his way to soccer practice when he was shot in the back by the police, according to witnesses. Leticia, a resident of Mar\u00e9 who wrote a letter to the Court, knows what it means<\/a> to lose a family member. \u201cGood afternoon, I would like the operations to stop because many families will be killed and, now, I don\u2019t have a bedroom because you destroyed it during an operation,\u201d she wrote. \u201cEveryone at my school cries. My brother [cries] because of the police. They beat up my cousin. So, I don\u2019t want to see my family dying anymore when they come in. Let me know, ok? Thank you for reading my letter. Signed, Leticia.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

The favela counts its dead. A bi-annual bulletin published by Redes da Mar\u00e9<\/a> that week shows that 27 were killed in the first half of 2019 alone\u201410% more than all of 2018, when 24 were killed. 15 people died during 21 police operations; the other 12 died during 10 confrontations between the criminal factions that control the communities of Mar\u00e9. \u201cI have to say that the operations killed a lot of people and it is very sad,\u201d wrote a boy named William\u2014like the others, his letter was transcribed in type to aid the reader. Throughout 2017, before the Civil Public Action entered into effect for the first time, 42 people died (one every nine days), and 57 were wounded. In that year, 41 police operations took place, while criminal factions entered in confrontation 16 times. \u201cOne time my mother left to see my grandmother and there were so many shots that I hid behind the washing machine. This is what I have to say.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

The favela is scared. And it lives through moments of real panic. According to the bulletin, four police operations used helicopters<\/a>\u2014nicknamed the caveir\u00e3o voador<\/em> [flying skull, a reference to the armored personnel carrier nicknamed caveir\u00e3o<\/em>]\u2014as firing platforms in the first half of 2019 alone, tying the total number of instances for 2017 and 2018 combined. \u201cDear judges, when you order an operation here in Mar\u00e9, the police don\u2019t tell us. They come in helicopters, shooting down. It seems like they don\u2019t respect residents,\u201d wrote another child. Of the 15 deaths that took place on days with police operations this year, 14 occurred when a helicopter was in use. \u201cWhen there is an operation, none of the residents stay in the street because they know that the police will kill them. They think we are bad guys too,\u201d wrote the child.<\/p>\n

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

The favela is frightened. \u201cThe children get scared and hide behind the furniture in their houses. The way they knock on our doors is scary. They hit it and almost knock down the door. They make a mess of the houses of the residents who are out at work,\u201d wrote another resident to the Rio judges. They are subjected to a range of abuses committed by the authorities. \u201cEven when we are at home we are hostages to this abuse they inflict on us.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

The favela is the target. Wilson Witzel<\/a> gave up his role as a federal judge at the beginning of 2018 in order to run for governor in that year\u2019s general elections. He won promising to shoot criminals \u201cin their little heads,\u201d which has now become a sort of endless mantra, both in word and deed. Since he assumed office and began to command Rio\u2019s Civil and Military Police, he has begun putting into practice a public policy critiqued for its tendency to stoke police violence, primarily against the black youths that live in the state\u2019s peripheries. Witzel routinely poses for photographs alongside rifle-strapped police officers. He boarded a Civil Police helicopter<\/a> in Angra dos Reis, the night before another police operation in Mar\u00e9. In the helicopter, he sat alongside an agent shooting towards the ground. Witzel publicly supports this practice.<\/p>\n

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

The favela is in their sights. Data from the Rio Public Security Institute<\/a> (ISP), a state organ, registered 3048 violent deaths in the state of Rio de Janeiro between January and June of 2019. Out of these, 881 were murders committed by state security agents: 29%. Nearly one third. Historic records are being set month after month, and these figures do not account for murders committed by members of the militia<\/a> [formed by off-duty and former security agents] or police that kill without entering their actions into the criminal registry. \u201cThe caveir\u00e3o<\/em>, when it comes in here, it comes to kill us. It doesn\u2019t come here just for a simple intervention. The State kills dreams, kills lives, kills the future of people who could one day be in your place, madame judge,\u201d wrote another resident.<\/p>\n

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

The favela goes without school and without healthcare. The bulletin from Redes da Mar\u00e9 states that, throughout the first half of this year, schools and health posts experienced ten days of forced closures<\/a> because of shootouts, the same as the total for all of 2018. In 2017, before the institution of the Civil Public Action, children saw their classes suspended on 35 separate days, and health posts closures totaling 45 days. In that year, 41 police operations took place. \u201cOne day I was at school, outside, at P.E. class. Out of nowhere, a helicopter passed by, shooting down, and everybody ran to the bleachers,\u201d wrote one child. \u201cWhen the firing stopped, we all ran inside the school until my mom came to get me. When there are more shots, I stay at home.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

But the favela wants to play. \u201cThe bad thing about operations in the favelas is that we can\u2019t play,\u201d wrote another young resident. \u201cThere is a lot of violence.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

The favela wants respect and freedom. \u201cTo be able to go to school, to class, to have the freedom to go<\/a> out with my parents or my friends\u2026 Well, that\u2019s it. I wish you could respect people. Because many die from stray bullets.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

The favela wants rights. \u201cI think that if you could see the smiles that I see, if you heard the stories that I hear, you would decide differently. And you wouldn\u2019t think that we are asking for charity. It\u2019s not even close,\u201d wrote an anonymous youth. The letter ends with an invitation to the judges \u201cGuaranteeing rights in Mar\u00e9 means guaranteeing rights for the city<\/a>. We are the city. Please, come. Accept this invitation and come to get to know what moves me every day!!!\u201d<\/p>\n

The favela wants peace.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clique Aqui para Portugu\u00eas\u00a0 For the original article in Portuguese by Felipe Betim published in El Pa\u00eds click here. Children from the Complexo da Mar\u00e9 favelas describe the horrors of life in the crossfire, writing […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":162,"featured_media":55227,"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":[1288,1290,2242,1330,336],"tags":[2469,2630,1163,280,107,2771,25,2550,1679,918,37,2687,17,2481,809,1555,1011,1008,268,2424,1017,1385,2422,2878],"writer":[2567],"translator":[2995],"illustrator":[],"photographer":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-55225","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-highlight","8":"category-civilsociety","9":"category-democracy","10":"category-translation","11":"category-violations","12":"tag-caveirao","13":"tag-civil-police","14":"tag-civil-society","15":"tag-complexo-da-mare","16":"tag-health","17":"tag-helicopter","18":"tag-human-rights","19":"tag-illegal-searches","20":"tag-isp","21":"tag-military-police","22":"tag-north-zone","23":"tag-petition","24":"tag-police-brutality","25":"tag-police-violence","26":"tag-public-security","27":"tag-redes-de-desenvolvimento-da-mare","28":"tag-right-to-come-and-go","29":"tag-right-to-the-city","30":"tag-state-violence","31":"tag-successful-protest","32":"tag-childrens-rights","33":"tag-violence","34":"tag-school-closings","35":"tag-wilson-witzel","36":"writer-felipe-betim","37":"translator-edmund-ruge"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55225","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=55225"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55225\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/55227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=55225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=55225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=55225"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwriter&post=55225"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftranslator&post=55225"},{"taxonomy":"illustrator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fillustrator&post=55225"},{"taxonomy":"photographer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fphotographer&post=55225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}