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The day before Easter started with killings in Rio de Janeiro. Five inhabitants were killed in the Complexo do Alemão, a slum in the northern part of the city. Among these, four of them lost their lives in a police anti-drug raid. This is just a part of the ongoing, and sometimes lethal, confrontations between cops and criminals within the favelas (slums) of Rio de Janeiro — actions that are far more likely to effect young black men.
One of the victims, Eduardo de Jesus, was only 10 years old and was sitting in front of his house, waiting for his sister to get back from work, when he was shot to death. Witnesses stated that the shot came from a police officer. During an interview withBrazil’s Portal G1 News, Eduardo’s mother mentioned she was threatened by the police officer after demanding an explanation from him about what happened:
I remember his face. I will never forget the face of the cop that ruined my life. When I approached him, he pointed the gun at me. I said, ‘You can kill me, because you already ruined my life.’
We cannot continue to allow citizens to be killed every day in cold blood because we consider confrontations between cops and criminals in the favelas it to be “natural.”
