Five dead a day. It is the sinister record claimed by the police of Rio de Janeiro, which killed 1,810 people in 2019, an increase of 18% compared to 2018, according to figures, published Tuesday January 21 by the Institute of Public Security (ISP) of the Rio State government.
The new figure coincides with the first year of the province’s new governor, Wilson Witzel, elected largely because of his alignment with the security policies of far-right president Jair Bolsonaro. As soon as he took office, Mr. Witzel notably advocated the use of snipers to shoot down suspects armed with an assault rifle.
"More than a third of violent deaths"
"When we see that the police are responsible for more than a third of violent deaths, it shows how our security model is marked by police violence"says Silva Ramos, a specialist at the Security and Citizenship Research Center (Cesec) at Candido Mendes University. The researcher, also responsible for the Security Observatory, analyzed in detail the police operations carried out in the slums. (Favelas) of Rio in recent years:
"In Rio, major police operations have become the main form of police intervention in recent years. It is a policy of confrontation and not enough of intelligence and planning. "
PSI figures show, however, that the number of people killed by the police gradually decreased in the second half (196 in July, 173 in August, 154 in September, 144 in October, 135 in November and 124 in December). . According to Silvia Ramos, Governor Witzel "Started his mandate with a very aggressive speech, but the collateral effects, in particular the children killed by stray bullets, had such an impact that he had to change course".
She alludes in particular to the case of the little Agatha, eight years old, killed in a favela last September, a drama which had shocked the whole country. The prosecution requested a police charge in December, the investigation showed that the bullet had been fired from his weapon.
