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href="https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Brazil-80-of-Killed-by-Police-in-Rio-de-Janeiro-2019-Were-Black-20200208-0012.html">https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Brazil-80-of-Killed-by-Police-in-Rio-de-Janeiro-2019-Were-Black-20200208-0012.html</a></font>
<h1 class="reader-title">Brazil: 80% Killed by Police in Rio de
Janeiro in 2019 Were Black</h1>
February 8, 2020</div>
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<p>In Brazil, 80 percent of those killed by police in Rio
de Janeiro were Black, a figure that only in the first
half of 2019 is similar to that of the country as a
whole in 2018, according to data published by the
Institute of Public Security (ISP).</p>
<p>On Feb. 8, 2019, during a police operation in the
Fallet favela, it was the day with the most deaths due
to legal intervention in the first half of 2019, 18 in
total. Nine of them were inside the same house in
Fallet.</p>
<p>State data indicates that 80.3 percent of those killed
in police operations in the first half of 2019, were
Black or Brown. That is, of the 885 deaths, 711
responded to this racial category, according to ISP.</p>
<p>According to the Brazilian lawyer of the human rights
organization Conectas Gabriel Sampaio, the racial
component of deaths in the state cannot be denied.</p>
<p>"(The deaths) require a level of clarification and
reflection on public security policy, which cannot be
based on death. The high figures on deaths already show
an error in public safety. And the racial component is
extremely serious," the expert told Brazilian news
outlet G1.</p>
<p>"Above all, it is a portrait of deaths that reveals how
structural racism is in Brazil and how much it is
institutional, understanding that (police) institutions
must provide security to citizens," he added.</p>
<p>The mother of two of the dead in the Fallet favela is
struggling to prove that their children were not
criminals. According to the police, all were linked to
"drug trafficking," a narrative commonly used in an
attempt to criminalize the peripheries, where there is a
high percentage of the Black population.</p>
<blockquote>
<p><em><strong>RELATED:<br>
<a
href="https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Over-120-Trans-People-Murdered-in-Brazil-in-2019-Study-20200129-0015.html"
target="_blank">Over 120 Trans People Murdered
in Brazil in 2019: Study</a></strong></em></p>
</blockquote>
<p>"Today I live to justify the death of my children.
Don’t you know how painful this is for a mother?" she
asks.</p>
<p>Another mother and former Fallet resident questioned
the violent actions of the police.</p>
<p>"They were not allowed to prove that they had nothing
to do with it (drug trafficking). They took away the
right of my children to life," she told G1.</p>
<p>A retired officer of the Brazilian Military Police and
a researcher at the Violence Analysis Laboratory of the
State University of Rio de Janeiro Robson Rodrigues said
that the number of deaths by state agents broke a
historical record, while the number of homicides reached
a lower level since 1991.</p>
<p>"The direction of these public policies continues in
the same sectors, against the same segments, in the same
places where there is the perception that the problem is
located there," the former military police criticized.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Brazilian far-right President, Jair
Bolsonaro has been involved in a series of scandals due
to his position that emboldens the police forces. In
November 2019, he sent to Congress a bill to prevent the
opening of trials by “easy trigger” or state violence
against military and police.</p>
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