This Wednesday, Brazilian civilian police charged a Portuguese citizen, a manager of a Zara brand store in a mall in Fortaleza, with a racist crime against a black shopper, police sources told Lusa.
According to the civil police of the Brazilian state of Ceara, 32-year-old Portuguese Bruno Filipe Simões Antonio was charged under article 5 of the Racial Crimes Act for refusing to prevent access to commercial enterprises, refusing to serve. or get a customer or buyer.
The case dates back to September 14, when a black police chief was stopped while trying to break into Zara’s store.
Delegate Ana Paula Barroso, deputy director of the Department for the Protection of Vulnerable Groups, was eating ice cream when she was not allowed to enter the store.
It is for this reason, the establishment claims, that the woman was barred from entering the bloc due to security protocols against covid-19.
However, a few minutes before that, another person entered the same store without using the covid-19 protective mask correctly, he was allowed to enter the store, and he was even helped by the same employee who did not ask him to use protective gear correctly. …
“The images analyzed by the Ceará State Forensic Science Department and the Police Intelligence Department demonstrate the suspect’s discriminatory attitude,” the civilian police said.
“The visuals received through the store’s internal network show different treatment of the victim by the store employee. The images show when the victim was kicked out of the scene, and a few minutes before that, the same employee visited the client who did not even eat. , misused the mask, ”the corporation said in a statement.
The scene was observed in other situations, when other customers were not taken out of the store or approached to properly wear a mask.
In addition to the allegedly criminal behavior practiced by the Portuguese, the civilian police also discovered that the aforementioned Zara store used a sound system to alert to the presence of black or “poorly dressed” citizens in its department.
“They used the code to alert other officers to the presence of ‘suspects’, that is, blacks or people who were ‘poorly dressed,’” a civilian police source told Luce.
Zara used the “Zara zerou” beep code on its internal speakers to indicate to employees which customers should be considered “potential suspects.”
In the course of the investigation, in addition to the photographs taken, the Civil Police collected testimonies from eight witnesses, as well as from the victim and the suspect.
Among those interviewed was a 27-year-old black woman who reported on social media that she experienced a similar situation at the end of June this year in the same store.
Two former employees of the establishment were also heard, who reported cases of moral harassment and discriminatory procedures in the form of serving potential clients. Three security guards from the shopping center where the store operates and the head of security at the facility were also heard.
Portuguese citizens can be sentenced to prison terms of one to three years.
The store can be held liable for non-pecuniary damage under the Brazilian Civil Code.
