Criticisms
The Brazilian Military Police is widely know for its violence . For instance, just in the first six months of 2012, 76 people were killed by the police only in the city of São Paulo. Some of the most infamous massacres of recent Brazilian History, many of them involving underage victims, involved members of the Military Police. In July 19, 1993, sixteen Military Police members were arrested in the state of Alagoas accused of killing sixty-nine people. On July 23, 1993, eight street children were killed outside of Candelária Church (Igreja da Candelária), in Rio de Janeiro. The international response was one of outrage. Four military policemen, including a lieutenant, were arrested and eventually convicted. On August 30, 1993, thirty armed men wearing hoods entered Vigário Geral, a favela in Rio de Janeiro, and set fires, destroyed homes, and shot randomly, killing twenty-one people. Favela residents claimed that the assassins were Military Police avenging the killing of four of their members by drug traffickers in the shantytown. Later investigations substantiated those charges. Because of such activities, the Federal Police have been called in to investigate.
In an UN international congress, the Danish government suggested to the Brazilian government the "end of the separate Military Police system" and "implementation of more efficient measures to reduce the incidence of extra-judicial executions".
Read more about this topic: Military Police (Brazil)
Famous quotes containing the word criticisms:
“The sway of alcohol over mankind is unquestionably due to its power to stimulate the mystical faculties of human nature, usually crushed to earth by the cold facts and dry criticisms of the sober hour. Sobriety diminishes, discriminates, and says no; drunkenness expands, unites, and says yes.”
—William James (1842–1910)
“I have no concern with any economic criticisms of the communist system; I cannot enquire into whether the abolition of private property is expedient or advantageous. But I am able to recognize that the psychological premises on which the system is based are an untenable illusion. In abolishing private property we deprive the human love of aggression of one of its instruments ... but we have in no way altered the differences in power and influence which are misused by aggressiveness.”
—Sigmund Freud (1856–1939)