Note from BW of Brazil: This is the type of thing that trips me about Brazilians, even among highly educated people. The image of the good citizen vs. the bad citizen along lines of race and color is so deeply ingrained in the society that people hardly realize that their beliefs contradict the oft-repeated idea that “we Brazilians are all equal“. I mean, as if we didn’t already have enough evidence to bury any real belief in this idea, everyday we see more and more evidence that Brazilians themselves don’t actually believe this.
The statement embedded in the title of today’s article was actually declared by a sitting judge, affirming the stereotype that a white person doesn’t typically commit such heinous acts while suggesting that another profile, obviously that of people of color, more often fits this stereotype. In her comments, the judge is basically saying that, as the defendant has European features, in her view, rare among criminals, it would be difficult for anyone to forget what he looks like.
This is intriguing. Why? Because, 1) as mentioned previously, Brazilians always swear up and down that they don’t see differences along lines of race because they “are all equal”. 2) This piece once again shows that white people don’t lose their status as being model citizens even when they commit crimes, and 3) even with all of the mostly white men (and a few women) being caught in HUGE corruption and money laundering schemes such as Lava Jato and Mensalão and so many others, this judge can still conclude that this man’s racial characteristics don’t fit those of a typical criminal shows that she is totally out of touch with reality.
Of course, I’m not implying that black Brazilians aren’t involved in criminal activity. We see this everyday as well. But the question remains: why does the criminal stereotype fit the black image like a glove while the image of white people never seems to be tarnished even when caught in crimes that costs the country billions every year? Note to judge: A) Brazil has ALWAYS been a corrupt country. B) Brazil has ALWAYS been run by white men. C) Black people have NO power in Brazil. And, D) you’re right. Whenever I see governors, mayors, businessmen and politicians or men in business suits being led away to prison in handcuffs, they often if not usually DO have “the standard stereotype of such a crook: white skin, light (or dark) colored eyes and hair”, and this subject is not easily mistaken”. I couldn’t have said it better myself!
‘Defendant, with white skin and light colored eyes, doesn’t have the stereotype of a crook,’ writes judge
Courtesy of ABCDOABC
“The defendant doesn’t have the standard stereotype of a crook, he has white skin, light colored eyes and hair.” The phrase is from Judge Lissandra Reis Ceccon, of the 5th Criminal Court of Campinas, in a sentencing for robbery.
The judge sentenced a man “with white skin, light-colored eyes and light-colored hair” to 30 years in prison for the crime of robbery.
The magistrate made the remark by reporting, in the file, that Klayner Renan Souza Masferrer was “firmly recognized” by a victim and a witness to a car theft followed by gunshots that killed her driver. The decision was revealed by the reporter Sarah Brito, from the portal ACidadeON and obtained by the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo.
The case was denounced by the State Public Prosecutor of São Paulo in 2013 and sentenced in 2016. The judge’s note on the “standard crook stereotype” began to circulate in WhatsApp groups of lawyers.
According to records, in February 2013, Romário de Freitas Borges “parked his vehicle on the public road, when Klayner, with gun in hand, demanded that he give up the vehicle.”
Disgruntled, “Romário went after Klayner, opened the door and pulled the assailant out of the car, getting into a physical fight with him.”
The report says that “Klayner carried out shots that struck the head and abdomen of Romário, causing injuries that were the cause of his death.”
Sentencing Klayner Masferrer, the judge reports that he “was firmly recognized by the victim and witness.” “The surviving victim mentioned that she recognized the defendant among other photos, entering the defendant’s Facebook with the police chief, recognizing him again at the police station and later in court.
“In court, the defendant was placed among other people, and victim and the witness Maristela at no time had any hesitation in recognition. To the contrary, the witness Maristela presents a strong testimony (…), and it cannot be doubted that this daughter/mother will never forget him,” he writes.
And so, she pointed out. “It is worth noting that the defendant does not have the standard stereotype of a crook, he has white skin, light-colored eyes and light hair, and is not subject to being easily mistaken.”
Klayner Renan Souza Masferrer was “firmly recognized” by a victim and a witness of a car theft followed by gunshots that killed the driver.
For judge, a black person looks like a crook
Courtesy of Causa Operária
The request for condemnation of the case is 2013, the decision is July 2016 but has been gaining repercussion in recent days in social networks.
Different from other crooks
The defendant was sentenced to 30 years in prison for robbery, according to witnesses Masferrer shot a man and his grandson. For the relatives of the victim, the suspect was easily recognized as he wasn’t “like the other bandits”.
After the robbery attempt, Romário de Freitas Borges was shot twice and died, his grandson Arthur Borges was also injured. In a note on the case, the court of justice of São Paulo (TJSP) informed that it is not appropriate to position itself on the means and grounds used by the magistrate in its decision, and any interference may hurt the autonomy and freedom of judgment of judges.
The judge said that she will not speak on the matter, because the process is under secrecy in the courts.
Lissandra’s decision, which is now accused of racism, clearly shows the elitist and racist nature of the Brazilian judiciary vis-à-vis the nation’s blacks, and that nowadays classifies and judges according to the color of their skin.
Racism marches through the courts, and even more openly it goes up in the shantytowns and peripheries of Brazil, with thousands of cases of murders of black youth by the police every day.
For the President of the Comissão da Verdade da Escravidão Negra (Black Slavery Truth Commission) of the OAB (Brazilian Lawyers Guild), Humberto Adami, “anyone who is judged by this judge can argue that he/she suspect, because he is not exempt to judge. It is important to go deeper if the person who will make the decision has already impregnated in himself/herself, in their way of functioning, an idea that they think the subject has a crook’s face because he is black.”
A very common situation
A fact among so many others that also became known in 2018, happened in the state of Ohio in the United States, where a judge ordered to cover the mouth of a black man with tape in his own judgment, Franklin Williams 32 years, was condemned for robbery and credit card fraud and received a sentence of 24 years.
Still in 2018 in Duque de Caxias, in the Baixada Fluminense region of Rio de Janeiro, we had the case of the lawyer Valéria Lucia dos Santos who was handcuffed and removed from the court by two police officers, who served the orders of Judge Ethel Tavares de Vasconcelos, and there is federal legislation that prohibits imprisonment of the lawyer in the exercise of her profession, except in case of an unreliable crime, which was not the case.
Therefore, it is necessary to denounce and highlight the racist character of coup justice and the need to mobilize blacks through popular organization, in order to prevent the massacre that is spreading among the black population in Brazil and around the world, in the face of the political crisis.
Source: ABCDOABC, Causa Operária
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