Cracking down on crime Brazilian style

The overwhelming attitude of Brazilians is, "any problem ignored long enough will resolve itself."

This twisted logic is not lost on Brazilian politicians by any means. In fact it is about the only thing that they all share in common. This country's Penal Code was enacted in 1940 and has remained virtually unchanged in all those years. Heck, it hasn't even kept up to pace with reality. Nowadays there are crimes that weren't even dreamed of back then, while there are still laws on the books that are outdated and obsolete. How does that make sense?

I've been here for 14 years now, and in all that time the politicians have talked a good fight about creating tougher laws, more rigid sentencing guidelines, etc.; but that's all it has been - just talk. They have taken no concrete action to improve things. If truth be told, this government has actually done the exact opposite; weakening laws, giving more protection to the criminal elements in Brazilian society and taking away the rights of honest, law abiding citizens.

For example, in a country where there are about 150 thousand murders each year, the majority of which are with firearms; it used to be that illegal possession of a firearm was a charge that did not permit a judge to grant bail (fiança). That changed about 4 years ago when it became one of many crimes that were included in the "Lei de Fiança."  How does that combat criminality and reduce the homicide rate?

While use of a replica firearm, or even simulating or saying that you have one, during the commission of a crime in most other nations gets you an armed robbery or assault with a weapon charge. In some countries (like Canada) that automatically gets 5 years tacked on to whatever other sentence you may receive. Not here in Brazil. If it's not a real firearm it's just considered a toy regardless of how realistic and there is absolutely no charge. You'll get charged with simple robbery, not armed robbery. Yet the trauma and potential risk to the victims and bystanders is every bit as real. Imagine the poor SOB walking down the street, minding his own business when some juvenile holds somebody up with a replica handgun. Now imagine some off duty police officer sees this, draws his gun and begins blasting away. Now this poor schlock walking down the street ends up taking a stray bullet and dies. Is he any less dead because the crook's gun was only a "toy?" Or what about the elderly victim who drops dead of a heart attack at the sight of that "três oitão?"

When law enforcement authorities in Brazil simply can't do anything to resolve a problem they simply create a Special Delegacy to deal with it. They can't keep Brazilian men from maiming or killing their wives, lovers or girlfriends so they created DEAM (Delegacia Especializada em Atendimento a Mulher). They just can't get a handle on the alarming increase in crimes perpetrated against tourists (both national and foreign), so they invented DEAT (Delegacia Especializada em Atendimento a Turista). Hasn't helped one darn bit, believe me. Yet they'll keep doing it until they finally have DEEAC (Delegacia Especializada em Estacionar Acima da Calçada), trust me!

Now don't get me wrong here... I never want to see Brazil get like the USA where there are two firearms for every living man, woman and child. That said the "Lei de Desarmamento" clearly is not working. Sorry Madam President, but if you're going to stip the honest law abiding citizens of the right to own a firearm for self-protection; then you have an overriding obligation to at least put up the appearance of keeping firearms out of the hands of criminals too. I mean really, you guys don't even try to appear to be doing that. The borders in this country are so porous that I'm amazed that the druglords here don't have M1A2 Abrams tanks for God's sake!!! I mean really, they have absolutely no problem whatsoever in getting their hands on Browning 50mm machine guns and everything else. You also have the obligation of actually doing something to protect those citizens you've prohibited from protecting themselves.

When you create a situation like this you create the phenomenon we see now in Brazil where citizens are completely fed up, no longer trust the police and judicial system to protect them and take the law into their own hands. You've created this overwhelming attitude in Brazil of "bandido bom é bandido morto," (a good bandit is a dead bandit) which is shared by over 70 percent of the Brazilian population now. What does this do? Well, for one it creates a situation where the general public has accepted that police are above the law, they tolerate the extra-judicial killings that are so common in Brazil. They accept the fact that the bandits in many cases aren't even given the chance to surrender; police arrive unannounced and shooting to kill. Situations like Military Police summarily executing two unarmed suspects who had already surrendered and were handcuffed. One was shot and a weapon retreived from a police cruiser and planted on his body, while the other was thrown from the roof of a house still in handcuffed and executed by officers on the ground below. You create a situation where it is acceptable for a police officer to shoot a fleeing suspect in the back when there was no threat made and no danger existed. You create a situation where even the officer feels he's above the law and that he's judge, jury and executioner and that attitude seem to be just fine with the general population. It also creates a situation where the population lynches an innocent woman a wife and mother, wrongly accused of kidnapping a child on Facebook.

This is a very sad comment on this nation and the image Brazil has throughout the rest of the world.

Cheers,
James