Brazil: Protests in São Paulo condemn police violence
A Nova Democracia reports: Protests brought together protesters, popular movements and family members of victims of police violence. They also demanded the resignation of São Paulo’s Secretary of Public Security, Guilhermme Derrite, and of Governor Tarcísio de Freitas.
A large protest in the center of the capital of São Paulo condemned cases of police violence in São Paulo, days after police officers were caught beating elderly women and throwing a man off a bridge in different cities in São Paulo.
“This is the 10 millionth isolated case,” said rapper Eduardo Taddeo, uncle of Gabriel Renan from Slva Soares, who was shot eight times in the back by an off-duty police officer.
The protest brought together protesters, popular movements and family members of victims of police violence. They also demanded the resignation of São Paulo’s Secretary of Public Security, Guilhermme Derrite , and of Governor Tarcísio de Freitas (Republicans) .
Derrite has been the main target of the complaints, both because he is the Secretary of Public Security and because he has a history favorable to police violence since he was an agent in the Rondas Ostensivas Tobias de Aguiar (Rota) battalion.
Governor Freitas also took an active part in police violence against the people of São Paulo. It was he who prepared, with Derrite, the two Operations Shield, which included cases of executions, torture and other violations.
Under Freitas’ management, the São Paulo police killed 712 people in 2023 alone. The number is 74% higher than that recorded in the same period the previous year.
Popular mobilization has led to prosecutions and arrests against the murderous police officers. Yesterday, (5th of December), police officer Luan Felipe Alves Pereira, who threw a live man from a bridge, was arrested. The complaint only went ahead because a civilian recorded the attempted murder. The other police officers at the scene did not report and will not be tried for omission or complicity, despite having committed both crimes.
On the same day, the police officer who murdered Gabriel Renan da Silva Soares, Eduardo Taddeo’s nephew, was also arrested. At the time of his arrest, the Public Prosecutor’s Office stated that the cop is being investigated for 3 other deaths in 10 months of police activity. The judge said the police officer fired 11 shots at the boy, who was unarmed.
