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<div class="header reader-header reader-show-element"> <font
size="-2"><a class="domain reader-domain"
href="https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Police-Killings-Reaches-Historic-Record-in-Rio-de-Janeiro-20190822-0013.html">https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Police-Killings-Reaches-Historic-Record-in-Rio-de-Janeiro-20190822-0013.html</a></font>
<h1 class="reader-title">Police Killings Reaches Historic Record
in Rio de Janeiro</h1>
August 22, 2019</div>
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<p>The mega-city of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil recorded a 49
percent increase in civilian deaths at the hands of
police in July compared to the same month last year,
making it the highest number of deaths by security
forces on record since tracking began in 1998, official
sources say.</p>
<p>A total of 194 people were killed by the police in July
- that's more than six deaths per day, on average, that
took place in Rio during police interventions, according
to a report released Wednesday by the Institute of
Public Security (ISP), an agency associated with the Rio
state government.</p>
<p>During the first six months of 2019 the number of
murders at the hands of police reached 881. Meanwhile,
no police officer died on duty between January and July
of this year, compared to July last year when four
officials were killed in the line of duty.</p>
<p>Rio police, both civil and military, have been heavily
criticized by <a
href="https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/More-Killed-in-Brazil-Than-Syria-Police-Killing-Rising-Report-20161029-0004.html"
target="_blank">human rights groups</a> and the
Ombudsman's Office for excessive use of the force and
extra-judicial killings, often breaking into homes
without a warrant and shooting from helicopters during
police operations, among other tactics.</p>
<p>Although Congress has managed to curb, at least
momentarily, the decrees Bolsonaro is issuing, <a
href="https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Bolsonaro-To-Sign-Decree-to-Allow-Carrying-Loaded-Weapons-20190506-0008.html"
target="_blank">seek</a>ing to relax arms possession
laws in Brazil, the far-right leader has not abandoned
his intention to promote the use of guns.</p>
<p>Since assuming power in January, President Jair
Bolsonaro, a 63-year-old former Army captain and admirer
of Brazil's military dictatorship of 1964 to 1985 and
U.S. President Donald Trump, has threatened to pass laws
that will allow police and civilians to “shoot suspected
offenders” <a
href="https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Brazils-Bolsonaro-Seeks-to-Grant-Police-Impunity-Over-Violence-20190104-0009.html"
target="_blank">without fear of prosecution</a>. The
Brazilian president has also said the nation's civilian
security forces should be decorated for using guns, not
taken to court. </p>
<p> Río de Janeiro Governor Wilson Witzel, a right-wing
ally of Bolosonaro and a supporter of the right of
police to kill with impunity, had ordered the police to
use snipers and murder anyone who they think is carrying
a weapon, resulting in 90 percent of the police shooting
victims being young, Black, males from poor favelas.</p>
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