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.