A-Infos (en) Brazil, OSL: Death machine: police executions in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

In recent days, the PMs of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro have given more 
examples of the use of violence and barbarity against the peripheral, 
poor and black population. The Vai Vai parade at this year's São Paulo 
Carnival, which brought demons dressed as police officers onto the 
avenue, is just a portrait of the terror experienced on the outskirts of 
cities. ---- Since the beginning of February, at least 21 people have 
been killed by police officers in Baixada Santista, as part of the 
so-called "Operation Shield" - three police officers have been killed in 
the region since the beginning of the year. The police's standard 
discourse, that these people had been killed in a "confrontation", was 
quickly adopted by the government and a large part of the bourgeois 
media. Among the deaths are that of a recyclable collector, in addition 
to several reports of home invasions, abuse and torture.

A similar operation last year resulted in the deaths of 28 people in the 
region. Governor Tarcísio de Freitas (Republicans) went so far as to 
say, at the end of last year, that he was "extremely satisfied" with the 
results of the operation. Even with government protection, however, 
there are police officers responding to homicides.

In Rio de Janeiro, Jefferson de Araújo Costa, aged 22, was protesting 
against police violence in Complexo da Maré, on February 8, when he was 
summarily executed with a rifle shot at close range, fired by a police 
officer. The PM was arrested for manslaughter, that is, when there is no 
intention to kill.

Police execution as a tool of domination of the capitalist-statist system

Both in Rio and on the coast of São Paulo, we see something in common: 
execution as a systematic instrument of domination. Even under so-called 
progressive governments or those linked to left-wing parties, this death 
engine continues to operate. On January 21, around 200 landowners 
organized an armed action against the Pataxó resumption in Potiguará, in 
the south of Bahia, which resulted in the murder of Fátima Muniz de 
Andrade, known as Nega Pataxó. The Bahia PM supported all the 
landowners' actions. The government is commanded by Jerônimo Rodrigues, 
from PT - he is considered the first indigenous person elected governor 
in the country. For years under PT administration, Bahia has had several 
episodes of police brutality, with the connivance and even support of 
party governors. In 2015, after the Cabula Massacre, in Salvador, when 
the PM killed 12 people, the then governor Rui Costa even compared the 
police action to the play of a "gunner in front of the goal".

Far from being exceptions to the rule, these executions reveal the 
"normal" functioning of the police in Brazil in territories with a 
majority black and poor population. Massacres and revenge operations are 
systematically carried out by police forces against the population of 
the poorest regions, aiming for social and military control. This 
process is complemented by the policy of mass incarceration, with more 
than 800,000 prisoners, 2 out of every 3 of whom are black.

Mass incarceration and privatization of prisons

Since the end of last year, the Lula government has continued the plan 
to privatize the prison system (put into practice during the Temer 
government), with Public-Private Partnerships, a model of co-management 
of prisons between the State and private companies.

With the privatization of prisons, pressure and lobbying from companies 
increase to increase incarceration, because the more prisoners, the more 
profits for these capitalists.

Revenge operations, executions and super incarceration are policies 
carried out by all governments. Therefore, it is not enough to defend 
"democracy and the Republican State against fascism", but to build a way 
out for the oppressed classes that once and for all stops the machine of 
violence and racism that operates in favelas, neighborhoods and communities.

It is not possible to defend a left-wing or anti-fascist policy and 
continue to uncritically support governments that strengthen the 
police's instruments of death and repression.

Ending massacres in the peripheries involves questioning the system of 
domination itself. We defend a revolutionary program, which involves the 
destruction of the State's repressive apparatus, such as the military 
police, and the creation of self-management instruments for resolving 
conflicts, through councils and popular associations.

For the end of the military police!
For the immediate cessation of police operations in favelas and outskirts!

OSL, February 15, 2024.

https://socialismolibertario.net/2024/02/15/maquina-da-morte-as-execucoes-policiais-em-sao-paulo-e-no-rio-de-janeiro/
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