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AGAINST POLICE VIOLENCE, FAVELAS SUE RIO STATE

The Supreme Court needs to assess the constitutionality of Rio's public security policy

This Friday, the STF (Supreme Federal Court) plenary will evaluate a precautionary measure granted by Minister Edson Fachin that suspends police operations in the favelas of the state of Rio de Janeiro during the sanitary emergency caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

In response to a series of police actions against the peripheries of the state - including the one that killed the boy João Pedro, of just 14 years-old, inside his own house - the PSB (Brazilian Socialist Party), together with Rio de Janeiro State Public Defender's Office, in addition to Educafro, Justiça Global, Redes da Maré, Conectas Direitos Humanos, Movimento Negro Unificado and Iser filed a request to the STF for such actions to be suspended during the pandemic.

The request was made in the context of the ADPF (Failure to Comply with Fundamental Precept) -635, which puts on trial the public security policy of Rio de Janeiro and the serious violations committed by police actions on the peripheries. The action calls for the construction of a security plan with social participation and the adoption of police protocols aimed at protecting life and respecting the fundamental rights of this population.

It is not news that the favela and black population of the state of Rio faces a systematic violation of their rights promoted by police forces. Always justified by the “war on drugs” narrative, violence against black bodies takes on the proportions of genocide. It is worth remembering that the Brazilian police kills five times more than the US and that, of the more than 6,200 people killed by the police in 2018 in Brazil, 75% were black, according to the Public Security Yearbook.

In the context of the pandemic, structural racism is accentuated and the deaths caused by Rio de Janeiro police reach record numbers - according to the State Public Security Institute, it reached 177 deaths in April - affecting also peripheral families’ homes, invaded without court order. Cases like João Pedro's reflect that as serious as the risk caused by the virus itself, is the risk of death from armed clashes in the context of police operations.

Last Tuesday (23), the ADPF-635 rapporteur, Minister Fachin, formally admitted the participation of several peripheral collectives as "amicus curiae" in the action. They are: Iniciativa Direito à Memória e Justiça Racial/Baixada Fluminense-RJ; Coletivo Papo Reto, of Complexo do Alemão; Coletivo Fala Akari, from Acari; Rede de Comunidades e Movimento contra a Violência; and Mães de Manguinhos.

Among social and collective movements, this action nicknamed “Favelas for Life” is seen as historic because it is the first time that favelas and mothers of victims of police violence have participated in a lawsuit against the state of Rio in the STF, asking for a security policy that guarantees rights and preserves life regardless of the skin color or the place where people live. This trial is expected to be paradigmatic for all other Brazilian states, which equally apply racist and genocidal policies against their black and peripheral population.

It is essential that the country's main court endorse the injunction that banned police operations during the pandemic. In addition, it is urgent that the STF resume the trial of ADPF 635, suspended in April by request of Minister Alexandre de Moraes, and evaluate the constitutionality of Rio's public security policy, imposing limits on the use of police force.