The Jacaresinho massacre: barbarism as a public safety policy

On 6 May, a police operation in the Jacaresinho favela, located in the northern zone of Rio de Janeiro, killed 28 people, 27 of whom were civilians and 1 policeman. The bloodshed guaranteed this operation the title of the deadliest police operation in the history of the state of Rio de Janeiro.

The massacre in Jacaresinho’s favela and the beneficial consequences for police action can be interpreted as a materialization of the phenomenon of naturalization of violence in Brazilian society, present both in the relationship between the state and the citizen, and in the relationship between citizens and finds. fertile soil for public safety.

The use of lethal force by the police to solve the most pressing problem of the police operation in the favela of Jacaresinho is considered a necessary and useful technique, especially in the fight against so-called street crime (theft, robbery and human trafficking). with the idea that public safety is just a matter of the police, and with the militant paradigm of “fighting crime”.

And one of the ways to legitimize the death of a person who became the target of a police operation is to qualify the deceased as a person who has a police pass and / or has been convicted of these types of crimes. This is often done under the nickname “bandit,” which disqualifies a person as a citizen and relegates him to a marginal life, subject to death, which is scorned or extolled by the population and mechanically approved by government institutions.

Behind the illusory hope that this logic of work can contribute to the much-desired security in cities lies the trail of citizens’ bodies and injuries in the families of the victims and in local communities. We also cannot forget the large numbers of police officers who end up falling victim to a kind of endless state war against certain segments of the population in urban centers.

In addition, police-related deaths in Brazil tend to have skin color, age group, gender and address. The target is usually male, young, black and peripheral, which must be viewed from a historical perspective due to the strength of racism and the arbitrary struggle against poverty in the Brazilian social formation.

One of the things that the massacre in Jacaresinho’s favela reminds us of is that the perpetuation and social and institutional legitimization of the use of lethal force by the police is still one of several issues that affect the area of ​​public safety. There is an urgent need to rethink and discuss the model of police, society and state that should be implemented in Brazil. At this point, unfortunately, the choice has been a collective commitment to barbarism, not a democratic disposition towards political, legal and social mediation.