In Rio It’s War. And a Video Shows Police Executing Two Men on the Ground

A police officer walks up to a man lying on the ground, reaches down, and picks up what appears to be an assault rifle beside the man. As the man looks up, the officer shoots him.

The camera pans to follow another police officer, approaching a second man on the ground. He shoots him, and keeps walking.

The executions occurred just outside the wall of the Daniel Piza Municipal School in Rio de Janeiro on March 30.

Maria Eduarda Alves da Conceição, a 13-year-old student who was in gym class, was also killed. Her uncle told reporters she was shot three times when police opened fire on the two suspects from across the Acari River, which runs in front of the school.

Rio’s military police commander said the video revealed “blatant illegal actions.” But the commander’s own spokesperson was less clear.

“Police officers need to be able to flip a switch in their minds, at times being defenders of rights and at times being warriors, because there is a real war,” he said.

Rio police have a dangerous job. Forty-six military police officers have been killed this year, on and off duty. But execution of suspects and excessive use of force resulting in deaths of bystanders won’t help.

These practices violate the most basic right of all – the right to life – and represent the opposite of what police should stand for. These abuses also feed the cycle of violence.

What criminal in Rio, having seen the March 30 video, would surrender peacefully when cornered? Fear of being executed can drive suspects to shoot at police. Several police officers expressed this concern during interviews I conducted last year.

Others told me that after fellow officers executed people, they feared communities would turn their backs and stop reporting crimes or warning officers of dangers, making police even more vulnerable.

Since I conducted those interviews, the situation has worsened. Rio police killed 920 people in 2016. Killings rose 78 percent in January and February of 2017.

The only appropriate response is a thorough, impartial investigation into every police killing, not just those caught on tape, and prosecution of every police officer who commits a crime. That’s what will best protect Rio’s communities and its police force.

César Muñoz is a Human Rights Watch Senior Researcher in Brazil

Human Rights Watch

Tags:

You May Also Like

Independence Dragons, the ceremonial police in charge of Palácio do Planalto, the presidential office - Photo: Carolina Antunes/PR

Senate Approves Amendment Proposal that Would Bring Presidential Elections to Brazil Now

Another crack around and within Michel Temer’s administration emerged as a Brazilian Senate Committee ...

A Uber driver in Brazil

Brazil Congress Moves to Derail Uber and Company

Brazil’s lower house of Congress voted Tuesday to give cities greater power to regulate ...

Justice statue in front of the Supreme Court building in Brasília - Photo: SCO/STF

Defiant, Brazil’s President Charged with Corruption Vows Not to Resign

Brazil’s President Michel Temer says nothing will destroy him, as he faces suspension and ...

Bronze sculpture of Zumbi dos Palmares, in Salvador, Bahia state

Palmares, Brazil’s Slave Rebellion, Still Going On 400 Years Later

The Quilombo dos Palmares was a nation of fugitive slaves, Indians, and a few ...

Brazil's incoming president Jair Bolsonaro has called Cuban doctors 'slave labor' because their government keeps about 75 percent of their pay

For Cuban Doctors in Brazil a Choice Between Being a Slave or a Refugee

Isabela, one of more than 8,000 Cuban health workers in Brazil, saw two options ...

Helen Park Truong, 34, and Sarah Tang, 31, embrace after laying flowers at a makeshift memorial outside the Gold Spa REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton

A Country Mourns Georgia Spa Killings and Decries Anti-Asian Racism

Clutching a bouquet of flowers, Jami Webb wept alongside her fiancé Kevin Chen at ...

Eike Batista, Once Brazil’s Wealthiest Man, Is Now an International Fugitive

Brazilian businessman Eike Batista was put on Interpol’s list of wanted people. After the ...