A ‘Rodney King Case’ in Brazil

On Monday, millions of Brazilian television viewers watched a handful of police officers cruelly beat 11 slum dwellers, a Rio version of the Rodney King episode. A video shot by a resident and aired on the evening news showed the policemen whaling on a group of people, including two teenage girls, who had been herded together.

The country was shocked. The governor of Rio de Janeiro state, Marcelo Alencar, fired the cops but characterized their behavior as an aberration. Hard to imagine him saying that with a straight face. In its latest report, issued this week, Human Rights Watch/Americas documents more than 30 cases of executions, torture and beatings by Brazilian police. That is a pattern of conduct, not an aberration.

The video tells the story. Faces to a wall, the victims stand helpless as the officers take turns strolling behind them, swilling beer. Suddenly a cop raises his baton and savagely beats one of the group. In turn, other cops, seemingly emotionless, slap the victims or kick them. After an hour of this abuse, the policemen walk away. None of the victims were arrested. This all happened in a neighborhood named the City of God.

On the basis of evidence in the human rights report, it appears this incident stems from a Rio de Janeiro program to improve police “productivity,” which seems in practice to be suppression of civilians. Ninety-two Rio policemen have been promoted for allegedly displaying courage in incidents that left 72 civilians dead.

If the governor sees no problem and the police chief won’t speak of it, who will hear the complaints of the slum dwellers of Brazil? The only glimmer of hope is that perhaps the video will force national officials to acknowledge that the problem exists.