{"id":63424,"date":"2021-02-14T12:58:09","date_gmt":"2021-02-14T15:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=63424"},"modified":"2023-08-23T12:20:03","modified_gmt":"2023-08-23T15:20:03","slug":"in-niteroi-recurrent-arbitrary-arrests-of-black-people-based-on-photos-are-denounced","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=63424","title":{"rendered":"In Niter\u00f3i, Recurrent Arbitrary Arrests of Black People, Based on their Social Media Photos, Are Denounced to the United Nations"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

The article is part of a partnership <\/i>with the\u00a0<\/i>Center for Critical Studies in Language, Education, and Society (NECLES)<\/a><\/em>, at the Fluminense Federal University (UFF), to produce\u00a0articles to be used as teaching resources in public schools<\/a>\u00a0in the city of Niter\u00f3i, Rio de Janeiro\u2019s sister city across Guanabara Bay.<\/i><\/p>\n

The virtual world, particularly social media, has reduced distances and created convenience and connections which a little over a decade ago would have been impossible. During the Covid-19 pandemic\u2014<\/span>with the necessity for social isolation\u2014<\/span>teleworking and virtual meetings have been essential alternatives to allow us to maintain our lives. Were it not for online events (albeit slightly overdone), we might have died of boredom.<\/p>\n

Who knows, perhaps through this virtual life some of life\u2019s injustices can be corrected and even brought to an end. An example is the unjust arrest of young Luiz Justino<\/a>, a resident of Grota, a neighborhood in Niter\u00f3i<\/a>, who was considered a suspect as per usual police standards and ended up in a prison cell. Thanks to an enormous online and in-person mobilization, and to the repercussion in the press, the arbitrary nature of the arrest was reversed and Justino was released<\/a>. It is important to remember that Justino is a young black man and a cellist in the Grota Orchestra<\/a>, a fact which helped mobilize the public.<\/p>\n

His case, where a photo collected from his social media feeds was included in a Civil Police<\/a> database, sparked questions of how and why the police keep an album of photos of young black youth to include as suspects. And, more than that, why are these \u201csuspects\u201d overwhelmingly black?<\/p>\n

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

From then on, other cases with the same characteristics\u2014<\/span>a young black man walking down the streets of Niter\u00f3i is approached and since his photo is already in the police database, often collected from social media, he is arbitrarily arrested\u2014<\/span>began to emerge. It is worth bearing in mind that according to a survey conducted by Nexo, <\/em>Niter\u00f3i is one of the cities with the largest white population in the country<\/a>, and one of the most racially segregated<\/a> in the world. According to Casa Fluminense’s Inequality Map, 88% of victims of police killings in Niter\u00f3i<\/a> in 2019 were black.<\/p>\n

Following the case of Luiz Justino, there was that of Danilo F\u00e9lix, 25, who was stopped by plainclothes police<\/a> and taken to the 76th Civil Police station in Niter\u00f3i, accused of armed robbery and imprisoned after being recognized by the victim through a photo. The lawyer on the case sustained that the photos used by the police for identification were taken from F\u00e9lix\u2019s Facebook profile. The young man spent 58 days in prison. On the day of his trial, September 28, a large mobilization of the black and artists\u2019 movements of Niter\u00f3i took place<\/a> in front of the Niter\u00f3i Courthouse. At around 6pm, the news of F\u00e9lix’s release was announced, causing a general commotion.<\/p>\n

But the cases did not end<\/a>. A similar one is that of Carlos Henrique de Santana Moreira<\/a>, a young man arrested while working at a moto-taxi stand in Niter\u00f3i during a police check that used a photo to identify him as responsible for a 2017 theft. Motivated by the success of the mobilization resulting in F\u00e9lix’s release, the families of three young men with cases with the same characteristics\u2014<\/span>Danilo F\u00e9lix, Carlos Henrique de Santana Moreira and Jefferson Ribeiro\u2014together <\/span>with the black movement, organized a demonstration on October 15, in front of the Alc\u00e2ntara<\/a> Courthouse, in Coluband\u00ea, a neighborhood of S\u00e3o Gon\u00e7alo<\/a>, on the day of Santana Moreira’s trial. Unfortunately, the presumed victim did not show up, which could have guaranteed the young man\u2019s release. Nevertheless, the judge on the case rescheduled a new trial for December 3. The families and black civil society movements rescheduled the mobilization for the same day.<\/p>\n

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

Soon after, on November 17, another mobilization took place at the Niter\u00f3i Courthouse due to yet another case of the same nature. This time, it concerned Jefferson Ribeiro, a young man of 21<\/a>. Ribeiro was on his way to work, on September 1, when he was stopped by members of the Niter\u00f3i Presente force at around 6pm, in the neighborhood of Charitas. The police officers declared there were three outstanding arrest warrants against him for armed robbery, and Ribeiro was arrested without proof.<\/p>\n

The November 17 demonstration\u2014<\/span>organized by Ribeiro’s mother and sisters, civil society and black movements\u2014<\/span>began at the same time as the trial, at 3pm. As with Danilo F\u00e9lix\u2019s trial, the hope was that the sentence would be announced at 6pm. At approximately 3:30pm, however, the lawyer told the family, \u201cHe has been released, but the judge has requested that the demonstration be broken up.\u201d With a mixture of joy and outrage, the family thanked supporters for their presence and asked that the demonstration be brought to an end. Shaken, Ribeiro’s mother,\u00a0Adriana Ribeiro do Nascimento, spoke a little about how this process has been:<\/p>\n

\u201cLife gets hard. Something like this shakes up the entire family. Particularly the mother, who doesn’t wish something like this for her children. It\u2019s very difficult, it\u2019s very painful. I\u2019m very thankful for the collaboration and to everyone who has been around giving support, helping out. It\u2019s really important to know that there are people who like us. Being black, it\u2019s difficult to find someone who will hold us, believe in us, support us. I have to thank everyone who is here. We have to continue this mobilization and mothers have to believe their children and fight, not stay quiet! They can\u2019t do it alone, they have to shout. They have to ask for help, like my daughter did.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Justino’s, F\u00e9lix’s and Ribeiro’s cases were reversed, very likely as a result of popular mobilization on social media and in person. There are more cases still, mapped out by the Niter\u00f3i Municipal Council’s Human Rights Commission, including that of Santana Moreira; of the brothers Everton and Jefferson de Azevedo Barcellos; of Laudei Oliveira da Silva; of Nathan Nunes Lopes Batista; of Carlos Eduardo de Oliveira; of Rafael Santos Maciel; and of so many others which have not yet come to light and so many others that have not yet happened, but whose Facebook, Instagram, and other profile pictures are already in the police online album.<\/p>\n

To denounce these abuses committed against young black men by the Niter\u00f3i police, city councillor Renatinho do PSOL, President of the Niter\u00f3i Municipal Council’s Human Rights Commission, along with a group of representatives from civil society movements, sent the United Nations (UN<\/a>) a letter denouncing these human rights violations and cases of racism<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In addition to the Niter\u00f3i Municipal Council\u2019s Human Rights Commission, the letter is signed by Justi\u00e7a Global<\/a>, Grupo Tortura Nunca Mais do Rio de Janeiro<\/a> (Torture Never Again Group), the Instituto de Defensores de Direitos Humanos – DDH<\/a> (Institute of Defenders of Human Rights), state representative Renata Souza (the president of the Human Rights Commission in the Rio de Janeiro State Legislative Assembly<\/a>\u2014Alerj),\u00a0and state representative Flavio Alves Serafini<\/a>, who is also a member of Alerj\u2019s Human Rights Commission. View the document sent to the UN here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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

On November 30, 2020, .at 6pm, the Niter\u00f3i Municipal Council’s Human Rights Commission held a public hearing on the Arbitrary Imprisonment of Black Youth in Niter\u00f3i. The hearing was broadcast live by TV C\u00e2mara, the Council\u2019s television channel.<\/p>\n

The Niter\u00f3i Municipal Council\u2019s Human Rights Commission mapped out nine cases<\/a>, which took place in recent months in Niter\u00f3i, of innocent black men who were deprived of their freedom after going through a flawed process of photographic \u201crecognition\u201d in the city\u2019s police stations, through photos taken from their social media and illegally included in police photo albums around the city.<\/p>\n

In most of these cases, there is a behavior pattern: young men, all of them black, are stopped in an arbitrary manner by police officers in the streets of the city of Niter\u00f3i. The hearing was conducted by the president of the Council\u2019s Human Rights Commission, councillor Renatinho do PSOL, who has already denounced this racist state policy to the UN. Family members of the victims of police abuse and representatives from human rights organizations took part in the hearing.<\/p>\n

On December 3, at 3:30pm, there was a demonstration for the release of Santana Moreira at the Alc\u00e2ntara Courthouse.<\/p>\n

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

Watch the video of the \u201cPublic Hearing, Arbitrary Imprisonment of Black Youth in Niter\u00f3i\u201d Here<\/a>:<\/h3>\n