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Global Girl Attends a Conference on Public Security in Rio de Janeiro (or insecurity?)
Even though I think that the efforts of Rio de Paz to put up the “Billboard of Violence” are really great, yesterday when I was writing my post, I was a little skeptical about how much it will actually accomplish in waking up the citizens of Rio (and the world for that matter) to the realities of victims/families of victims of violence. I was worried that advertising the amount of violence that occurs in these areas would actually strengthen the idea that in poorer communities there is only violence, which then leads to the stereotype that the citizens are “almost-citizens,” which then actually ingrains the politics of public security that allows the police to enter in with their armored cars shooting in order to fight for “peace.”
My attitude has changed a bit after today. Today I went to a conference about Public Security in the state of Rio de Janeiro held in the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) on the Urca campus.
To say the least, I was really moved by this conference, and I realize just how important it is for people to be able to come together and speak and be heard about their experiences with violence. The Catch-22 that I talked about yesterday certainly does exist, but after today I have a better idea of what Rio de Paz is trying to do: Set up a space that is visible and audible to both tourists and Brazilians for people to come together and have a defined space to rally and really create a movement as Cariocas, as Brazilians, and as human beings.
How did I find out about this conference?
It was actually a fluke that I ended up at the conference. There wasn’t a lot of advertisement for the conference, and I would have never found out about it if it hadn’t been for a colleague of mine who was writing a newspaper article about Rio and got in touch with Marcelo Freixo, the deputy and president of the Human Rights Commission in the Legislative Assembly of Rio de Janeiro (ALERJ). Marcelo Freixo just told me and my colleague to show up at 10:00 at UFRJ in Urca. I went with my colleague to help traduce the Portuguese and to learn as well. Only when we got to UFRJ was when we realized that it was a whole conference! Unfortunately because I didn’t know it was a day-long event, I couldn’t stay for the whole thing. But even the few speakers that I was able to hear, I was already moved.
Summary of the Speakers Debating Rio’s Policies of (In)security:
The first two speakers were both mothers of sons that had been killed by police. The first woman really emphasized that this isn’t a problem of poorer communities, but a problem of the whole city of Rio de Janeiro, and of the whole country of Brazil. She asked the question, Who is really at fault for these acts of violence? Is it the police? She responds, no. Unlike what most people say it isn’t the police, because they too are victims to the system of public security that demands these kinds of police. The police are the people who most kill and who also are most killed. She said the people at fault are the people creating the politics behind the institutions. That the policies for “public security” are actually the “Policies for public INsecurity.”
She had a really interesting quote in Portuguese about the pacifying politics in poorer communities:
“As políticas do caveirão são ‘pacificadores’ porque quando passa, fica dor.”
The second woman also stressed the necessity for people as cariocas, and as Brazilians, need to come together to fight this common problem. Her son was murdered in a shooting spree in the Baixada Fluminense where 30 or so people were killed.
Marcelo Freixo’s Speech on Milícias:
Marcelo Freixo was the next person to talk. He focused his talk on the role of the milícias in Rio de Janeiro. Milícias are the groups of police/ex-police that have started to increasingly gain control of poorer communities. Some of my readers that are unfamiliar with this situation might think that this sounds like a good thing, but in fact it is not. In the areas where the milícias have control, there are often higher rates of killings. It almost seems like these groups act in parallel to the state, spawning from the police or other state actors that have veered away from the state to take control of these areas, but this is a misconception. The existence of the milícias is actually the fruit of the politics of the state, the state wants that these areas are controlled by these groups because then it is “one less problem for the state.”
The milícia often has so much power because they control everything that goes on within the community economically. It is a very lucrative business. These communities pay taxes to the milícias, they get their cable, gas, light, etc through deals with the milícia. The organization of local vans in the area by the milícia, Marcelo quotes, brings in about R$170,000 daily. The police don’t have conditions to fight “against” these groups. The only thing that can stop these groups from spreading and infiltrating the rest of the city and country, according to Marcelo, is public power, and for public power.
I thought I would just share some of these thoughts with you all.
