TOUGHER PUNISHMENT FOR BULLIES - THE CASE OF JAHEEM HERRERA

I know that this blog is dedicated primarily to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, but today I feel compelled to write about a topic that greatly aggravates me and that I feel needs immediate attention: Bullying.

An 11 year old boy committed suicide after being tormented by his classmates at his school. He told his parents about it, and his mother complained to the school at least 7 times, but nothing was done to prevent the re-occurence of the torment. So Jaheem Herrera, who was severely bullied and even attacked in a bathroom, being called "gay" and "the virgin" (because he was from the U.S. Virgin Islands), told his mom he didn't want to go to school. But he had to. So he did, he came home with his report card, with excellent grades, and then he went up to his bedroom and hung himself with a belt in his closet.

This wonderful 11 year old child was tired of the torture he was exposed to, and felt helpless, as adults, especially the school officials, did not do enough to help him. His parents now feel guilty, blaming themselves for not being able to stop this tragic end, that now is irreversible. The school expressed their deepest sympathies, but that IS NOT ENOUGH!

What needs to happen is the following:
1) There should be ZERO TOLERANCE POLICIES for bullies. that means that once a child bullies another, that child should be expelled from school.
2) Bullying has to be defined for what it is: unwelcome remarks or aggressive behaviors towards another child that cause fear, sadness and/or anger. Bullying is not just a physical act. Words are as bad and as traumatizing as violence. So if you are asking me whether I am advocating expelling kids for being "mean", my answer is "yes, I am".
3) Schools need to be held accountable for not following the procedures in place (once they are in place), which should entail notifying the parents of the victim and perpetrator that such events are going on, and authorities, as there should also be laws that fine the parents of the bullies for being incompetent at educating their kids and deterring them from causing permanent harm to other human beings in society.
4) Parents of bullies need to be held responsible, and social workers should visit the homes of those parents to check whether these kids are being mistreated or ignored. There is a chance that they are bullies because they too are bullied, or because their parents are not parenting as they should be. If that is the case, these kids should be removed from their homes (depending on the severity of the circumstances) or mandated to attend, with their parents, a program to learn how to behave like a human being and not a monster.
5) There should be a cause of action available for the parents of the bullied child against the school system and against the parents or guardians of the bullies. This way there will be an incentive for these adults who are in a better position than the parents of the bullied children to fulfill their roles.

It is outrageous that laws are in place requiring children under 16 to go to school but laws are not enough to protect these children from verbal and physical abuse. Parents of bullied children know that sending their kids to school is at times the equivalent of sending them into torture prison camps, where their minds are crushed with the libel and slander, and their bodies violated with battery and assault. It is time that adults start acting like adults and do something to protect the future. Allowing this behavior to go on only creates tragedy, so how can we not stop it? Did we forget Columbine? How about the many psychopaths that were either bullied or were the bullies themselves and never stopped?

ENOUGH!

THE UNBELIEVABLE CRUELTY OF RIO'S ROBBERS IN THE CASE OF LESLIE LIMA DA VITORIA

It is unbelievable what happens in Rio.  But today's news in  the Brazilian newspaper "O Globo" really breaks the heart.  A woman, nurse, who was six months pregnant, was with her husband in their car after coming back from a shopping mall (which I must say I have gone to many times in my life) when they were apprehended by four armed men in two motorcycles.  They wanted their car.  Both Leslie and her husband did not react, and opened their doors to get out of the car and hand it to the robbers, when she got nervous and had difficulty unbuckling her seat-belt,  one of them shot Leslie twice on the head.  They ran away without taking anything.  Her husband rushed her to the hospital, but she was unable to survive the gunshot wounds to the head.  But the doctors were able to deliver her baby, a little girl, who was born three months premature, and is being kept under intensive care at the hospital.  

The robbers escaped and have not yet been caught.  The question in everyone's mind is "why", or at least it should be.  I cannot think of one reason why these monsters would want to injure an innocent woman, who just did what she was ask - get out of the car so they could steal it, and then leave taking only her life, and almost that of her unborn baby girl.  

Leslie was only 32 years old.  She dedicated her life to save the lives of others in her professional career as a nurse.   Both her and her husband were excited for the birth of their first child, and the idea that their lives would be forever changed like this, and worse, that this crime, like many others will either go unpunished or under-punished is extremely hard to live with, at least for me.  Until when are we going to take this?  Until when is Rio going to take this?   We need to stop only caring when it happens to one of our own.  

RIO, BRAZIL:  BASTA!  ENOUGH!  

THE CASE OF JOAO HELIO

I recommend sitting down before reading this one, if you haven't already done so, because it should be quite painful to read.  

Joao Helio was a six year old child from Rio de Janeiro who was coming back from soccer practice and later religious services with his mother and older sister.  He was sitting on the back-seat of his mother's 4 door car with his seat-belt on.  His mother was driving.  They approached a red light, and although it was night time and they know that, in Rio de Janeiro, one should never stop at a red light at night, she had to stop because there was already a car stopped in front of them.  While they were waiting for the light to turn green, three men got out of the car that was stopped in front of them, carrying riffles, and pointing it at them while screaming "get out of the car skank!".  Little Joao's mother quickly got out of the car and ordered her daughter to get out too, and she made her way to the back-seat to get her son out as well, as he was still buckled in.  She quickly opened the door and begged the criminals to please wait because her child was stuck to the seat-belt, but the 16 year old criminal yelled "hurry up skank" and slammed his door, taking off with the back door opened and her son still stuck to the seat-belt.  

They dragged her son on the hot asphalt for 7 kilometers, only stopping at a dead end street, where they got out and ran away towards the slums where they lived.  While they were dragging the child, motorists who saw something that "looked like a child" being dragged, tried to warn the driver, yelling for him to stop, saying that "there is a child being dragged by your car", but the criminals replied "it's not a child, it's a Judas doll that we are dragging".  

A Judas doll.   They called this innocent, sweet, loving 6 year old child, who was carefully raised with so much love by his parents, his sister and his whole family, a name that is the synonym of betrayal and lack of faith.  But calling her son Judas and calling her "skank" are not what destroyed Joao's family, of course.  What destroyed this otherwise completely normal and happy middle class family was the unsuspecting brutal killing of their baby boy.  

Joao's body was found by police officers who were unable to contain their tears at the scene of his little body completely disbanded, the asphalt, for 7 kilometers, covered in blood and body parts of a child that had done nothing to deserve this horrific and tragic fate.  Joao's mother stated that she ran after the car, but she knew that she was powerless before this horrible act, that she could not run fast enough to release her child, and felt impotent beyond imagination.   She only wished she had "superpowers" and could fly and release him from that tragic situation.  She felt guilty and destroyed.   She knew right away that she had lost her only son.  

Joao's father remembers that day well.  He said that it was not an ordinary day, that by chance he was scheduled to see a client next to where his son Joao played soccer, and while he was waiting for his meeting, he decided to go watch him play, something he never got to do.  That day Joao scored a goal, and even the teacher said that did not usually happen.  For his father, it was a good bye.  It was God's way of letting him have one more moment of joy with his son, see him score his first goal, and be there with him, in that moment, for the first and last time.  

This family is forever changed.  The image of their only son/brother dragged by these monsters the Brazilian penal code calls children, will never leave their mind.  Their impotence before such a tragic and torturous scene is ongoing, and probably haunts them day in and day out.   The city of Rio as well as Brazil as a whole was appalled at such cruelty, and the police was able to arrest the men because the father of the perpetrator turned them in.  This father is a hero, and someone worthy to be called a human being.  Someone who was hardworking, poor but dignified, who may have unwillingly raised a monster, but cannot be blamed for that act when he worked two jobs and went to school at night just so he could motivate his son to go to school too, and help him get through his studies.  

The criminal's father has a conscience and a sense of social order, but Brazil's justice system does not.  Joao Helio's murderers too are just one more example of impunity, but that story is beyond this entry, and I will have to address it at yet another time.  

THE IMPUNITY IN THE CASE OF TIM LOPES

After yesterday's entry it would be expected that a reader wonder what happened to the perpetrators of this horrific crime.  But, as you can tell from the topic herein, the truth is extremely frustrating and even more abhorrent than the crime itself.  Tim Lopes' murderers - the ones who were over 18, which were not than many - received a penalty of a little over 20 years in jail, of which they served 1/6 and were released on parole for the infamous Brazilian judicial reason of "good behavior".   

Where is the deterrent component?  WHY would these monsters not kill again?  As I have said before, crime over there is worth it, or at least that seems to be the message being sent by the penal code of the land.  When justices cite to the code as the reason behind their incomprehensible decisions to release these menacing animals back into society I say "then code needs to change".   You can't reward these people, who day after day and crime after crime prove themselves not able to be rehabilitated.   And you can't expose society to these people because they have proven themselves apathetic towards others, and capable of the most heinous acts of violence.  

I just want the American media to start reporting on these incidents.  I don't think that any help will come from any foreign nation, but I do think that once Americans know of this, and once tourism slows down, then the local government will do something because the universal language of money and profits is able to translate the need for change better than the popular shouts of "enough".  

THE CASE OF TIM LOPES

Tim Lopes was an award winning journalist and a concerned citizen, much like myself.  His outrage with the violence in Rio was such that he lost his life trying to broadcast it to the world in hopes of better days that have yet to come.  

In 2001, Tim Lopes and his team won a prize, Premio Esso, for a story they did called "Feirao Das Drogas" about the illegal drug business taking place at the infamous Morro do Alemao.  His documentary was a success, causing people to take notice and put pressure on the local authorities, that in turn ended up arresting many drug lords.   

In 2002 Tim Lopes decided to do another documentary, this time about child prostitution and abuse, as well as the sale of narcotics  in another favela, Favela do Cruzeiro, in Penha, north side of Rio de Janeiro.   He carried a hidden camera and infiltrated a "baile funk" or "funk dance", a type of outdoor dance club common to every favela in Rio, where MCs usually sing a tune similar to rap music in the United States, paying their respects to the drug lords, sponsors of the parties.  

The drug dealers noticed something fishy about Tim, especially when locals who lived in the community rattled him out to get on the good side of the drug lords, and although it remains a mystery whether they thought he was a police officer or they knew who he was and wanted revenge because of his 2001 report that led to many drug dealers' arrests, the fact is that Tim could not escape his very drastic fate.  "Tried" by the drug dealers and found guilty under punishment of death, Tim Lopes was tortured, dismembered, and put inside a tire, covered in gasoline and set fire to, then rolled down the hill while the drug dealers celebrated their so called victory.  One of the perpetrators, who was 12 years old at the time, stated that Tim begged not to be killed, but that only excited his murderers.  They burned and stabbed each of his eyes, cut off his hands, feet, legs and arms, all while he was still alive, they decapitated him, and then put all his body parts inside the tire, to be set on fire in the hopes to never be found. I wonder what kind of people are these, who are capable of doing something like this to any living thing, much less a fellow human being.  Nothing can possibly justify this behavior.  But this is the law of the drug traffic.  This is the law of the favelas, the law "of the hills".  It is no law at all, and we need actual law to stop all of this.  

It isn't abnormal to fear these men, after all, they are merciless and unscrupulous.   But one thing is for sure: Tim Lopes is a hero, never to be forgotten.  Someone who did something other than just quietly complain about a VERY disturbing reality.  We need more people like him so there will be less people like the ones who killed him.  

DRUG WAR CLAIMS ITS DAILY VICTIMS

It isn't news that Rio de Janeiro has a serious problem with drugs. The news are the daily victims, which, if we were to report every day, would take up all available space. Today the crossfire between the police and the drug dealers caused panic to locals, injuring ordinary citizens as they went about their daily lives.

It's very common in Rio to know someone who has been somewhat impacted by a stray bullet. I personally know quite a few people, none of which live in the slums. My aunt's apartment was hit, my grandparents building was hit (the bullet hit just one inch above their bedroom's air conditioning unit, which, if hit, would have exploded, killing them instantly and possibly claiming other lives), my tailor was hit on the ear while riding the public bus on her way to the bank, my school (the private school I went to in Rio) was constantly having to shut down because of the danger, and the kids would collect bullet capsules, which could be found all over the playground, and many other similar stories, which I will spare you from.

Drug dealers are in a category of their own. Some view them as evil doers, who terrorize society, especially the middle class, waging wars among themselves, claiming innocent victims, exercising their power over ordinary citizens, and often times innovating torture methods that would make your skin crawl. Others see them as protectors, doing for communities what the government fails to do. They keep order in the slums, with eye-for-an-eye punishing methods that regulates behavior and provides a sort of peace. They also loan money for those in need when banks won't, help make medications accessible when the government won't, and all they ask for in return is loyalty - a price that may seem reasonable but is in fact very high to pay. Despite their somewhat "reasonable" demeanor with the local slum dwellers, these drug lords are fierce with ordinary cariocas, claiming lives in ways that will be told...on entries to come.