UPPs experience could be an improvement if government and civil society manage to incorporate citizen listening in the short term
In the first 55 days of 2014, we had at least 45 killed in police operations in Rio de Janeiro's favelas, not to mention injured. These are numbers that urgently propose to the whole society the challenge of reflecting and questioning public security actions in Rio, especially in the favelas.
As someone who was raised in Maré, I seek to understand the practices of police forces in the favela from the perspective of agents directly involved in this problem: police, members of armed criminal groups and residents. My effort is to imagine ways to expand the dialogue with the authorities, who often fail to involve in the debate the population directly affected by the lack of comprehensive public security policies.
It is a fact that the solutions in this field are neither magical nor quick. The growing violence requires the construction of a global policy, not based on easy, pyrotechnic or short-term measures. A project that cannot, definitely, depend on electoral cycles. In this sense, the experience of conducting Peacekeeping Police Units (UPPs) in Rio de Janeiro could be an improvement if the government and civil society manage to incorporate citizen listening in the short term.
This work has shown that there will be no substantial change without understanding, on the part of those who live, act and love in the neighborhood of Maré, about what it means to have the right to public security and the role they need to fulfill for this conquest. I am sure that the same is true for many other areas of Rio.
During the collective reflection on police practices in Maré, I realized that favela residents do not share the same concept of security as those who live in places with a higher income standard. This is an interesting clue to understand the reasons for intolerance and discredit in the population's relationship with the police. The experience of a police officer who takes the role of protecting the population living in slums has never been part of the history of these communities. They never experienced a routine different from the violence, disrespect and humiliation that have always characterized the practices of most professionals in the police force. For many security agents, the prejudiced view that considers all people living in favelas to be potential accomplices in illegal activities persists.
The death of police officer Alda Rafael Castilho, 27, causes indignation and sadness to everyone who works to reduce violence in the State of Rio de Janeiro. As well as the death of Gabriel Lelis da Silva Barbosa, 14, and Jefferson Moreira de Jesus, 24, in a police operation in Maré, on January 23. We live in a state where people spend significant energy watching which death is most recognized and valued. This is as violent and unworthy as the explicit brutality that is experienced in our daily lives.
We will not get to the essence of the problem by valuing practices that place people with different opinions as enemies, which must be fought, as in a war. No life is more important than other, regardless of who they are.
Eliana Sousa Silva
Director and founder of NGO Redes da Maré, researcher in public security and visiting professor at the Institute of Advanced Studies at USP
This article was originally published at O Globo on February 25 of 2014
