Never Meant to Survive by Vargas Joao H. Costa;

Author:Vargas, Joao H. Costa;
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 1319369
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Published: 2013-06-25T00:00:00+00:00

He directed his gaze to Azevedo, me, and then to Rumba. His disgust was palpable. He proceeded to put on his cap and walk away, at which time two other colonels and their aides also left the room. Azevedo was somewhat embarrassed, but quickly recovered, saying the police have a long way to go in the process of learning how to communicate. To his remaining guests he said many police officers live in favelas, and go through considerable pains to conceal their occupation. Azevedo added that, if the police are to overcome their highly negative image among the poor, it is fundamental to start dialogues with favela activists.

As We had lunch, the conversation resumed. One of the remaining colonels recognized police culture made it so that favelas were seen as the enemy and that it was understandable that many inhabitants of those communities saw the police as an occupying, violent force.38 The Black civilian chief of police added to this thought that racism explained much of the police behavior: since favelas were the areas concentrating the larger number of Afrodescended persons, it was no surprise that hatred and violence was systematically applied there. He concluded: “racism is everywhere; even we who combat it sometimes fall prey to it, without realizing it.”

The remark was surprising, at least to the activists who looked at each other as if to make sure We had heard it correctly. Azevedo, however, decided to downplay the chief of police’s comment by reminding his guests that the police had great numbers of people of color (gente de cor), and that while discrimination existed, it was certainly not the most important problem to discuss. In his opinion, the police needed to understand that not everyone in the favelas is a criminal, and favela dwellers had to realize, through concrete police actions, that the police were not there to brutalize them indiscriminately. At this point, the community activist who came with us observed that police corruption was rampant, and it had become common practice for officers to extort those they thought were connected to drug dealers. When extortion failed, they resorted to kidnapping. In Jacarezinho, the favela for which Rumba was the neighborhood association’s president, he and i added that such was an almost daily reality. Ransom payments were becoming inflated, and fifty thousand reais (at the time the equivalent of about fifteen thousand dollars) were common.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.