Experts fear violence surge in Rio

The population's eagerness for a quick response to the robbery that took place last weekend on the beaches of the affluent South Zone of Rio de Janeiro could lead to increased violence, security experts fear. The number of people online who support action by vigilante gangs, groups organized to attack suspects of criminal activity by teenage mobs widely reported on by the media, is not insignificant.

According to a sociologist at the Violence Study Laboratory of the Rio de Janeiro State University (LAV/UERJ), Ignácio Cano, the authorities must take action to prevent the situation from worsening and forestall a wave of people “taking justice into their own hands”.

“Not only could this lead criminals to use increasingly powerful weapons, but also people who have never committed a crime could end up thinking they should arm themselves for fear of becoming victims. This is no solution and will only stir up fear,” the expert warned. He instanced an incident last Sunday when a group forced teenagers off a city bus and beat them up because they suspected the teenagers were involved in mugging.

Public Security Secretary José Mariano Beltrame also expressed vigilantism concerns and said Monday (Sept. 21) that he has fears about “where this is going.” Beltrame criticized a court ruling that the teenagers can only be detained if caught committing a crime. The decision was made at the request of the State Public Defender's Office of Rio de Janeiro, as a response to police checks on teenagers on buses bound to the South Zone coming from the poorer north. For Beltrame, the decision restricts police work. “This decision to bar us from carrying out preventive work could lead to people taking justice into their own hands. We will act to prevent that from happening, but it will make our job harder.”

According to the sociologist, Beltrame's statement is worrying because it suggests police are failing to carry out intelligence work. “It gives the impression that prevention has to be carried out illegally, since the court ruling merely upholds what's in the law—that people can only be arrested if caught committing an offense, or by a court warrant. This is obviously not true,” said Cano, who regards police checks on buses coming from the North Zone as ineffective and discriminatory.

On Wednesday (23), governor Luiz Fernando Pezão said the intelligence work is based on a technological approach, but police is going to act to prevent teenagers involved in wilding on buses from making it to the beach. “The people we don't want to get to the beach are those who don't pay the fares, ride on top or halfway outside the bus, throwing cans [on passers-by] and robbing passengers.”

According to political scientist João Trajano, police raids punish black, poor suburban juveniles before they have done anything wrong. “I wonder if these people are

the ones who are engaging in mob violence and rioting? Is it necessarily the boys traveling on the buses, when you can't even tell which buses they're traveling on?”

NGO fears widening gap between slums and paved streets
Known for its protests calling for peace in Copacabana Beach, an upscale neighborhood that has been the setting of mob violence and vigilante action, an NGO called Rio da Paz (“Rio for Peace” in a loose translation) is also concerned about how the problem has been handled. “The response that part of the middle class wants to give to the problem could widen the gap between the slums and the paved streets,” said the NGO chairman, Antonio Carlos Costa, referring to the local rich and poor neighborhoods.

Costa raises concerns about excessive media emphasis on beach robbery and noted that the killing this week of Herinaldo Vinícius Santana, an 11-year-old boy, in the Parque Alegria slum in the district of Caju did not get as much attention. Despite community protests on expressways in the North Zone, the case, in his view, did not create such a sensation.

Fake and old reports stir up tension on social media
According to Sylvia Moretzohn, a journalism professor at the Federal Fluminense University (UFF), news media are supposed to help lay bare discriminatory speech, especially when it comes from authorities. Instead, she points out, social media end up being used for inciting discrimination and fueling up the atmosphere of fear. She instanced fake news stories forged with old pictures used in the guise of recent violence imagery to scare people.

“Posts are shared out of context, and people just take them for granted. Social media get flooded and it viralizes beyond control,” the professor said.

In her opinion, people demand quick and easy solutions to historically persistent and complex problems and reject all attempts to show how complex these issues are in reality.

Operation Summer
Last Thursday (24), military police announced a special security scheme for this weekend consisting of about 700 men, including some from riot police. Dubbed Operation Summer, the reinforcement, a measure that is taken every year during peak beach season months, came up earlier this year.

At a public hearing at the State Legislative Assembly, Military Police Colonel Ibis Pereira argued that stepping up police patrolling will not solve the problem of mob robberies, which has been around in the city since 1991. He said the fact that “a war operation” has to be set up so that people can enjoy the beach raises deep questions about the city's identity.

“Police patrols alone can't prevent mob robberies. What are these robberies about? Why do they happen? What do these kids want? Do they just want to steal mobiles? They're craving attention, they want to be seen, because they are invisible. We're only talking about them because of their violent actions, otherwise we wouldn't.”

In an interview to TV Brasil, the executive coordinator of Project Uerê, Yvonne Bezerra, which provides mentoring to young locals in Complexo da Maré, a North Zone slum, pointed out that most outskirt youths do not engage in criminal activity or mobbing. “They're just trying to survive in a society that's extremely unfair to them. Then some of these kids get rebellious,” she said, noting that failures on the part of government and their families contribute  to this situation.

Translated by Mayra Borges