{"id":59799,"date":"2020-05-24T14:27:18","date_gmt":"2020-05-24T17:27:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=59799"},"modified":"2020-05-26T13:33:49","modified_gmt":"2020-05-26T16:33:49","slug":"as-rio-becomes-covid-19-epicenter-police-violence-soars-to-new-high","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=59799","title":{"rendered":"As Rio Becomes Covid-19 Epicenter, Police Violence Soars to New High"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

This is our latest article on the\u00a0<\/i>new coronavirus as it impacts Rio de Janeiro\u2019s favelas<\/a><\/i>\u00a0and part of our\u00a0<\/i>partnership with<\/em>\u00a0The Rio Times<\/em><\/a>.\u00a0For the article as published in The Rio Times click\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/i><\/em><\/p>\n

As the state of Rio de Janeiro climbs its way to becoming Brazil\u2019s Covid-19 epicenter<\/a>, favela residents find themselves fighting for their lives against the new coronavirus as well as an older, more familiar danger: the police.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The <\/span>deadliest police force in Brazil<\/span><\/a>, maybe <\/span>in the world<\/span><\/a>, Rio police are known for rushing armored trucks and helicopters into the favelas in what are described merely as \u201cpolice operations.\u201d Ostensibly targeted at local drug trafficking gangs, such operations often leave homes destroyed and black youth dead<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

New evidence shows that such incursions have not only continued during the pandemic, they’ve actually increased in both frequency and lethality.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

According to a new report<\/a> by the Network of Security Observatories (ROS<\/a>), a national monitoring body, Rio police operations increased 27.9% in April 2020 in comparison to April 2019. The number of civilians killed in these operations rose 57.9% in the same period. <\/span>\u201cThe police are increasing violence,\u201d said Pablo Nunes, research coordinator at the ROS, over WhatsApp. \u201cThey\u2019re acting as though the favelas haven\u2019t been left to fend for themselves during the pandemic<\/a>.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Official data from the state-operated Public Security Institute (ISP<\/a>) for April 2020 regarding the total number of civilians killed by Rio police\u2014a broader category than civilians killed during police operations\u2014are yet to be released. However, in the likely chance that total police killings match ROS findings, April 2020 will be Rio police\u2019s bloodiest April in history.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rio 2019: A Most Violent Year<\/strong><\/h3>\n

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The jump in operations follows a year of record-level police violence. Encouraged by <\/span>hardline rhetoric<\/span><\/a> from the newly-elected Governor Wilson Witzel, Rio de Janeiro police killed 1810 civilians in 2019<\/a>, the highest number since official records began in 1998, and <\/span>nearly double the number killed by US police<\/span><\/a> in the entire United States in 2019. 80% were black or brown<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

On taking office, Witzel extinguished the state government\u2019s security secretariat, the executive agency responsible for coordinating police activity. In its place, the state Civil Police<\/a> and Military Police<\/a> forces gained increased autonomy, with the two institutions earning their own secretariat-level offices. The combination of violent encouragement (Witzel suggested police snipers should shoot criminal targets \u201cin their little heads<\/a>\u201d) and gutted oversight resulted in impunity for extrajudicial killings: a groundbreaking <\/span>recent New York Times<\/em> analysis<\/span><\/a> concluded that Rio police “routinely gun down people without restraint, protected by their bosses and the knowledge that even if they are investigated for illegal killings, it will not keep them from going back out onto the beat.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Preliminary statistics show that 2020, pandemic and all, may be following in 2019\u2019s footsteps. The latest <\/span>ISP data from January through end-March 2020<\/span><\/a> reveals little change: compared to the same period in 2019, police killings had dropped a mere 2%.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

March 2020 had offered a glimpse of hope. Police killings dropped 14% in comparison to March 2019, in step with ROS findings on police operations for March 2020. As police shifted their efforts to enforce compliance with Covid-19 containment measures enacted March 16, the number of police operations plummeted, falling 74% in comparison to the first half of the month<\/a>. The number of civilians killed in police operations in March 2020 dropped to 15, compared to 36 in March 2019.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, this peace was short-lived. After the two-week reprieve, the slow in operations would end abruptly in early April<\/a>, as police returned to cracking down on drug gangs, reducing attention given to Covid-19 containment. Nunes attributed this return to a loss of leadership in communicating and maintaining a common understanding of the gravity of the pandemic. \u201cI think that this is over. This message isn\u2019t echoed within the police corps anymore. Each is pursuing its own interests.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Preliminary data indicate May may be no different. Between May 1 and May 19, police conducted an identical amount of operations as the same period last year, but killed 16.7% more civilians, according to the ROS report.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Interrupted Lives, Interrupted Donations<\/strong><\/h3>\n

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\nMay\u2019s figures provide further evidence for the startling amount of police violence favela residents and activists have faced over the last ten days, including:<\/span><\/p>\n