Paraisópolis: 9 Young people were massacred due to police actions

Paraisópolis: 9 Young people were massacred due to police actions

Note from BW of Brazil: It’s been my opinion for some time. I mean how often can see acts of violence on the part the Military Police, the acts of death squads, themselves often times off-duty police, the so-called stray bullets fired into poor neighborhoods, and the precarious living conditions of the favela population? Add to this, lower-paying jobs, difficulty in accessing the job market and health care and an openly stated promotion of a policy of whitening to gradually disappear the black population and you have to call it for what it is genocide.

I know it’s a strong word that shouldn’t be tossed around lightly, but look at the facts. The actions that agents of state security took at a baile (dance/ball) populated by mostly poor, non-white people, on December 1st, would have simply not happened had the party happened in a middle-class, upper crust, white neighborhood. This was discussed in a previous article on redlining. Brazilian society looks at events with a different eye depending on if those involved were considered non-white or if the skin color and physical features were sufficiently light/white and European.

As people look at the reality of life in Brazil, after seeing more and more stories that show this huge difference in the lives of white and non-white, they can only try to dismiss this reality with other excuses or explanations until finally, they have to admit that something sinister, troubling, ugly and unspoken (on the part of powerful elites) is going on. You don’t have to accept my thesis. But if you continue to view the evidence, sooner or later, you too will have to come to this conclusion.

Paraisópolis Massacre: It was no accident. It’s genocide!

With deep regret, solidarity and respect for the families of the victims of Paraisópolis, we denounce police violence and the accountability of the Brazilian State in the face of the 9 deaths and of all injured young people while exercising their right to leisure and culture, at a funk dance, on the dawn of December 1st, in the south zone of São Paulo.

By Coalizão Negra Por Direitos

Girls and boys were cornered by the military police, who fired tear gas, rubber bullets, and distributed bottles, rifle butts, punches, and kicks. They died as a result of the police action: Paulo Oliveira dos Santos, 16 years old; Bruno Gabriel dos Santos, 22 years old; Eduardo Silva, 21 years old; Denys Henrique Quirino da Silva, 16 years old; Mateus dos Santos Costa, 23 years old; Gustavo Cruz Xavier, 14 years old 7; Gabriel Rogério de Moraes, 20 years old; Dennys Guilherme dos Santos Franca, 16 years old and Luara Victoria de Oliveira, 18 years old. Mostly young black people.

Police crackdowns on funk dances have been frequent. In early November, a 16-year-old girl lost her eye after being hit by a rubber bullet during the dispersal of a dance in Guaianazes, in the east. In September, the São Paulo State Police seized 75 vehicles from attendees of a “pancadão” in the Itaquera region, also in the east, when a person was arrested. A year ago, three people were trampled to death in the Pimentas neighborhood of Guarulhos, another city in São Paulo state. In 2017, eight people were shot by the same police action at a funk dance in the city of Osasco, of São Paulo’s metropolitan region. It is therefore not possible to name such tactical and violent actions as accident, riot, confusion or incident.

We demand immediate and exempt investigation of the killings in Paraisópolis, as well as protection of relatives and witnesses of the case. It is the duty of the state to guarantee security and protection for all people, and unacceptable to provoke, with repression and criminalization of the funk dances, the genocide of black youth. It is worth remembering that the social right to leisure and culture is ensured in the Constitution and the Statute of Children and Adolescents.

The actions of the Military Police are the direct responsibility of the governor. If there are continuous violent actions, despite our denunciations, these should be understood as deliberate actions, therefore, guided and authorized by its major commander, Governor João Doria, who should be immediately held responsible. In the 2018 election campaign, João Doria stated that from January 1, 2019, the Military Police would shoot to kill.

Courtesy of Coalizão Negra Por Direitos