Reply #4: Brazil has had this problem for years, unfortunately: [View All]

[struggle4progress]

Urban Police Violence in Brazil
Torture and Police Killings In Sao Paulo and Rio De Janeiro after Five Years
May 1, 1993
An update of a 1987 Americas Watch report, Urban Police Violence in Brazil describes incidents of torture and extra-judicial killings by police and updates specific cases previously reported. http://www.hrw.org/en/reports/1993/05/01/urban-police-violence-brazil

Final Justice
Police and Death Squad Homicides of Adolescents in Brazil
February 1, 1994
Despite the considerable attention that has been brought to homicides of adolescents, impunity for those responsible for these abuses has in most respects, continued to prevail. As the cases in Final Justice reveal, this impunity is the product of several factors, but one primary cause is the lack of political will to adequately investigate and prosecute those responsible for violence against children and adolescents. When the will to prosecute does exist, investigations and convictions are possible. Unfortunately, this is rarely the case ... http://www.hrw.org/en/reports/1994/02/01/final-justice


Fighting Violence with Violence
Human Rights Abuse and Criminality in Rio de Janeiro
January 1, 1996
The homicide rate in Rio de Janeiro tripled in the last 15 years and public concern grew apace. The press, prominent civic leaders, and politicians focused particularly on violence related to criminal gangs and drug trafficking. Unfortunately, law enforcement efforts to control crime relied on flagrant and numerous human rights abuses. This report documents instances of police brutality, including two massacres in which 27 residents of one of Rio's hillside slums were killed ... http://www.hrw.org/en/reports/1996/01/01/fighting-violence-violence


Police Brutality in Urban Brazil
April 1, 1997
Rapid, unplanned growth of Brazil’s urban centers—11 of its cities are home to more than a million people each—has been accompanied in most cases by soaring crime rates and public dissatisfaction with the criminal justice system. In several states, authorities responded with policies that tolerate or promote grave violations of the rights of criminal suspects. We examine extrajudicial executions, near-fatal shootings, and forced disappearances of civilians, and both the inadequate or constructive responses of political, prosecutorial, and judicial authorities ... http://www.hrw.org/en/reports/1997/04/01/police-brutality-urban-brazil