The genocide continues: In 2019, blacks are 79% of those killed by Brazilian police
Note from BBT: Newsflash. Brazilian police kill a lot of black people. Oh wait, I forgot, I told you that last year, the year before and the year before that. Fact is, Brazil’s murderous Military Police have been a major contributor to the rates of black bodies being sent to the morgue for decades. I first became aware of this back in the year 2003 when, according to the data I had gathered, Brazilian Military Police of large cities such as Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo annually killed more citizens than all US police forces COMBINED, several times over.
Do we have any reason to believe that the carnage would stop anytime soon? Well, based on the numbers being reported from 2019 that’s a huge NO. Keep in mind as you read the unbelievable numbers in the report below, in 2019, American police forces killed a total of 999 people. Of course, that’s 999 more people than should have lost their lives, but numerically, how many times more people lost their lives in police actions in Brazil? Well, how many fingers you got? By my count, to get an idea, you’ll need all of your fingers on one hand and one more on the other hand.
Blacks are 79% of those killed by Brazilian police in 2019; in 2018, it was 75%
By Juca Guimarães
Data from the 14th Brazilian Public Security Yearbook reveal that the Brazilian police killed 6,357 people last year; in the total of intentional violent deaths in the country, black population is also the most victimized
The Fórum Brasileiro de Segurança Pública (Brazilian Public Security Forum) (FBSP) presented the 14th Anuário Brasileiro de Segurança Públic (Brazilian Public Security Yearbook), which reveals that 79.1% of the 6,357 people killed by the Brazilian police in 2019 were black (see note one). In the previous year, 6,175 police killings were carried out and 75.4% of the victims were black.
Of the total intentional violent deaths in the country over the past year, blacks were 74.4% of the 47,773 victims, which adds up to 35,543 people killed. Overall, there was an 18% drop in the number of violent deaths recorded, in the comparison between 2019 and 2018, however, the murder rate of black people has not decreased.
According to the Yearbook, in the general comparison of deaths, without the perspective of skin color, the total number of murders in Brazil has fallen in recent years. There were 57,341 in 2018, 64,021 in 2017, 61,597 in 2016 and 58,459 in 2015.
There is also an underreporting of racial data of victims of violence in the country, as not all states have reported the numbers to the Yearbook. Regarding police violence, for example, there are no data on deaths caused by public security agents in the states of Acre, Amazonas, Amapá and Rio Grande do Norte.
The actual data probably indicates an even greater number of intentional violent deaths, especially among black people. In addition to the states that did not provide the data, last year 13,705 cases were classified as “to clarify”, that is, the police were not even able to define whether it was homicide or not. In 2018, the total number of deaths “to be clarified” was 12,232 cases.
Children and adolescents
The survey also points out that 4,928 children and adolescents, up to 19 years old, were murdered last year. Of this total, 75% were black. Overall, the murders of children and adolescents in Brazil focus on victims aged between 15 and 19 years old. In this age group, there are nine out of ten cases of intentional violent death in children and adolescents. (The Genocide continues in 2019)
In partnership with Unicef, the Yearbook recorded cases of rape of children and adolescents. There were 25,984 cases in 2019, recorded in 12 states. Of the total violence against this group, 44% of the victims were between 10 and 14 years old, and 30% between zero and nine years old.
Covid-19
The 14th edition of the Yearbook also assessed the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on public safety data for the first six months of 2020. Between January and June 2020, 25,712 intentional violent deaths were recorded, an increase of 7.1% compared to the same period in 2019, when 24,012 people were murdered between January and June.
“If, on the one hand, the pandemic has not subverted public order or, nor has it created social chaos, the figures presented in this edition of the Brazilian Yearbook of Public Security show, on the other hand, that a reconfiguration of the criminal and public security scenario is in progress and that it is still not totally clear,” says an excerpt from the document.
Source: Alma Preta
Note
- This figures includes both pretos e pardos, or blacks and browns
Leave a Reply