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?
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For change to happen, I think people need to want it. Maybe they do, but they think that their actions can't influence change, that it is just a cycle that self-perpetuates. In other words, say Person A wants change, so he recruits Person B and Person C to help. Person D, who is part of a favela, hears of resistance and efforts to spark change, so he tracks down A, B, and C and "takes care" of them. How does change happen if no one is there to enforce it? If cops and the government do enforce it, are they there the next day to *keep* enforcing it?
ReplyDeleteWhen I went to Brazil last year, so many people told me, "Oh, you have to be careful...don't go out with any money, any jewelry, a camera, or anything. Something will happen." Is that really the mentality that Brazilians (and culturally-aware people from other places) want to be conveyed? Being realistic and street-smart is one thing, but denying people the freedom to explore someplace with an open mind is quite another!
I have always heard about the violence in Rio but your posts have shown how violent the city is.
ReplyDeleteJack Cafferty, who I never knew was so opinionated when he was a news anchor on WNBC 4 here in NY, just recently wrote an article about the Drug War here.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/03/31/cafferty.legal.drugs/index.html?iref=newssearch
Since Cafferty's assertion is that since the cartels here are now getting stronger in the US, legalizing drugs would put the cartels out of business. Do you think legalizing drugs in Rio would have the same effect.
Mind you I don't know I am for this or not. Just curious to see how you would feel about that knowing Rio as well as you do.
Love the blog by the way, from a fellow blogger
Gary
www.midmajorhoops.net
Unfortunately, most people in Brasil is accomodated with this situation, they think: "Why should I stress myself, if it will never reach me?" But this it's a wrong inpression and the only think that really matter to that people its your own interest. This means that they elect the same corrupt politicans with the sole purpose of pleasing themselves. For me the only defect of Brasil is the selfish people that instead of looking to community only look for themselves. And if you are thinking that i hate the brazilian people you are wrong, becouse i'm a brazilian girl, so I really knows what sayd to you.
ReplyDeleteNatasha Medici