MAN ARRESTED, GOVERNOR OUTRAGED, AND YET IT'S JUST ANOTHER DAY

A man was arrested in connection with the murder of the 25 year old student, Karla Leal dos Reis. The Brazilian newspaper reports that the man, 28 year old Augusto Cezar de Souza, was conditionally free on parole, and had already served four years in prison for robbery, theft, and other crimes. If convicted for this crime, he could get up to 20 or 30 years in prison. But reality is, that rarely happens. 20-30 is already not enough for a murderer, but they usually serve a much shorter sentence, around 5 years, and can always be released for "good behavior".

Shouldn't good behavior be expected? I mean, the idea should be to increase their sentence for bad behavior, and not to reward them for good behavior by decreasing their sentence. It's ridiculous what happens over there.

Meanwhile, the news describes the man as a drug addict, missing a row of teeth. I am sorry, but, being a drug addict and missing a row of teeth should not be the emphasis. His monstrosity should. It doesn't matter if he has no teeth, or if the drugs ease his pain of being a "victim of society", there is no excuse for acts such as his, and the local media and "human rights activists" should stop architecturing such image of pity on these individuals who serve no purpose than to injure others who, although also poor, have chosen to live a life of hard work and dignity.

Where are the human rights of the tax paying poor cariocas? Where are the rights of righteous citizens of Rio? The governor's outrage is expected, but it is not enough to solve the problem. He needs to stop feeling and start doing something to fix the state, and help the mayor fix the city.

Rio de Janeiro, the marvelous city (as the song so claims, and I can assert is true in so many ways) is crime ridden. Everyday people leave their homes to go to work or school or go about their daily activities with fear, not knowing if they will return. Parents, wives, children, husbands, siblings, bless their loved ones on their way out of the house. The hope is that God will protect them, since no legal authorities can.

It is not uncommon for drug lords to send their "foot soldiers" to close off tunnels and rob every person in every car stuck there. When it rains or there is terrible traffic on Avenida Brasil (Brazil Avenue) on the northern part of town, motorists fear that the marginalized youth, residents of the two large favelas located on either side of the avenue, will come running to take advantage that no car moves to rob everyone in sight.

Stray bullets kill more people in Rio than in many countries at war. Drug lords fight for control of different favelas, almost always up the hills, and the crossfire hits apartment buildings, schools, churches, hospitals, cars, and pedestrians, of all ages, all races and all social-economic statuses. My aunt's own apartment was hit by a bullet from an automatic weapon. the bullet was about 4 inches long, and an inch wide. It could have killed her. It could have killed someone else in my family. And they live on the 12th floor of a nice building in a nice part of town. No favelas are right there, but the bullets travel far, and nowhere in Rio is safe.

It's very difficult to understand how all of this can happen and nothing really be done about it. Not just Rio, but the whole country is in need of a legal reform, a penal reform and a judiciary reform. I agree that educations is important. But health is even more important, because to learn you need to be healthy. And more important than health is safety, because to be healthy, you need to be alive.

I am surprised that cariocas haven't taken upon themselves to do justice against criminals, to police their own neighborhoods, and admit that there is a war going on, and it's a civil war. A civil war of bad versus good, where the good has yet to start fighting. But I am confident that many minds together can come up with an idea for change. That's why I ask for sincere thoughts from anyone who is reading this. What do you think can be done to wage change?

When Crime is Worth It

Yesterday, Sunday, March 28, 2009, a girl who had just turned 25 the day before was shot and killed in front of her parents during a robbery at 8:00 p.m. on the streets of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.  The reason?  She had the "audacity" to ask the robber to please let her keep her bible and her work I.D. tag.  The man handed her the bible, but held the I.D.  As she and her parents turned and started walking away from the scene, the man cold bloodily shot her on the back of her neck.  She died before she even got to the hospital.  They could not have thought that on their way back from church, as early as 8:00 p.m. something like this could have happened.  

Her parents have not spoken since.  Her father, a doorman who had spent every penny he earned paying for her college education, which she was about to complete this year, had mentioned that today, Monday, he was going to take his daughter, who is the couple's only child, out to pick a present for her birthday.  Instead, he followed her flower covered casket, arm-in-arm with his wife, quietly walking the path to burry his child, who he and his wife had to watch be murdered.  

This is merely one of many shocking crimes that happen in Rio on a daily basis.  The reason?  Crime is worth it over there.  With sentences that are as arbitrary and unpredictable as world's financial prospects, the chances are that, if caught, this cold blooded killer will only get five years in prison.  

While most cariocas (as those born in the city of Rio are called) will eventually go back to their daily lives, not to mention all those all over the world who, sadly, won't ever hear the news, this poor girl's parents will never be the same again.  The moment where they lost the most important person in their lives will play over and over and over again in their heads, and they will be forced to also watch crime go severely unpunished, so much so that their precious, studious, dedicated, smart daughter will not be the only victim of the streets of Rio.  

Too many governments have changed, and the situation in Rio has only gotten worse.  A little over a year ago a little boy was dragged for miles on the hot asphalt of Rio, his foot tangled on the seat-belt of his mother's car after four armed men approached them at a light, demanded they got out, and despite her pleas for just a few more seconds because her son's foot had gotten tangled, the robbers took off anyways, dragging her child as a rag doll on the streets at high speed.  His body was destroyed, with body parts found all over the streets of Rio where the men drove.  Motorists tried to tell the men that it looked like someone was being dragged by the car, but they laughed and replied that it was just "a Judas doll".  That poor mother...that poor child...that poor family.  Again, robbed of what they most valued in life.  Their child, who they loved so much, treated like he was completely meaningless.  And the wrongdoers?  Well, they were minors.  So nothing serious could happen to them by the local laws.  

These are just a couple examples of what is a predominant problem there.  Rio de Janeiro is a beautiful, but violent place.  A city that is dominated by drug-lords who reign over the cariocas from high up the hills in the favelas (slums).  When one of them is killed, they rebel against the people, coming down the streets with their Uzis, AK 47s and hand grenades, ordering commerce to shut down their doors, setting fire to buses full of working class people, causing chaos, terror, and despair.  But does anything change after all that takes place?  No.  Nothing changes.   Cariocas sometimes get mad when "outsiders" comment on these events, replying that violence exists everywhere.  

Does it though?  I want to know whether here in the United States crimes like these would happen at the scale they do over there.  And I wonder what would be done here to the perpetrators of these terrible acts.  At least here there is justice.  There is a system in place, that works well and is respected by most people.  

The saddest thing is, Brazil is not in Africa, and is not a middle eastern country at war, so there is no foreign intervention.  Disregard or simply unawareness keeps international citizens shielded from these incidents, and if you are still wondering why you should care, well, firstly that is a topic outside the scope of this entry, but on a more direct note, I assume if you are reading this, you are human, and, as a human, it is puzzling if you don't care.