Gang Riots in Brazil: It Will Happen Again

I wish I had better news for my readers tonight but, yes, it’s true, we are living a chaos. It’s all over the blogsphere, in the papers, on Google, Yahoo, on-line news and on telly: CNN, Fox, BBC… Brazilian society panicked today.

I live in Sorocaba, a city in the state of São Paulo. We had a few attacks here too and cops got killed by the bandits. This afternoon I could barely work after 2 strange phone calls I got at home and I didn’t rest until I picked my kids up back from school. Downtown all the shops were closed or with the doors half closed. People were running and I didn’t see any policeman around.

Even though the police says things are under control and São Paulo’s Governor refuses the help of the army on the streets saying the militaries can do the do, the violence continues. Many policemen have been killed since last Friday. Criminals are burning buses and setting fire to banks, threatening the next targets will be the schools. So classes have been cancelled today. Brazilian Universities shut their doors down, afraid about what could happen. Many bus stations are closed too because the owners of the buses don’t want them to be burnt-out. My student just phoned to cancel tonight’s class. He’s worried and his mother doesn’t want him going out either. I blame the government for its bad response to this entire awful situation. Believe you or not, it all started after a prisoner named Marcola, a drug dealer, got transferred to a different prison and a few others got the right to spend the Mother’s Day at home with their moms. They left the prisons by midday and by 6pm the attacks started. And it spreads like wild fire. Even the ones that aren’t members of that criminal gang are attacking the police and going mad - like the boys from FEBEM, under 18 criminals that are also rebelling. With the perfect excuse, I reckon.

The PCC (The First Capital Command) warned the government that they would launch attacks 20 days before they did but nobody listened to it. The local police chief says it could last for more 10 days. The local and federal governments don’t seem to be able to control the riots. There are not enough policemen to fight the violent gangs. Our policemen are underpaid and disorganised, whereas the gangs are well organised, have better ammunitions and drugged up guys with nothing to lose.

The authorities should stop the prisoners from using mobile phones sending orders to other bandit groups outside the jails. The prisons are now controlled by the prisoners and the government doesn’t invest enough to change the situation. For instance, usually, prisoners get visitors (families and girlfriends/boy friends) on Sundays, but the authorities said this Sunday they wouldn’t stop the visits because that would make the situation even worse. And guess what? The prisoners rebelled and made their own family members as hostages after the visiting time expired. I wonder if the World Cup was already on they would be doing it, setting fire and destroying their own stuff, specially TVs and radios.

Therefore we conclude our money is going into other corrupt bandit’s pockets once we pay a big amount of high taxes and, yet we don’t see it being put to use in combating crime and education.

In truth if you live in São Paulo you live in constant fear of being robbed or attacked when you walk down the street. This wave of violence has just made that fear worse. If nothing effective gets done straight away our people will have to get used to another unbearable situation. Just another one in a country so needy of all sorts. And in a world begging for peace.

Cris Zimermann

Photos: Futura Press

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Estória triste, todos têm uma para contar…

Bem, pessoal, para quem não entende Inglês, este foi um dos posts mais difíceis que escrevi até hoje. Falar mal do ‘Brasilzão’, especialmente para estrangeiros não é comigo. Não escondo a nossa realidade, mas defendo nosso chão. Infelizmente os fatos que relatei realmente estão acontecendo. Em maior ou menor intensidade, dependendo da localização, mas aconteceram comigo esta tarde e de certa forma nos deixam ainda mais inseguros num cenário já tão incerto pelo qual vimos passando.

Teria sido fácil minimizar, inventar, florear, dizer que tudo não passou de um grande boato, de uma desculpa tragicômica encontrada por nós para escaparmos do trabalho nesta 2ª.f.

Teria sido muito mais fácil postar de maneira otimista, buscar a opinião de algum gringo deslumbrado com o calor e a mulherada, dizendo que o Brasil é lindo, que somos um povo super amigável, que aqui é o paraíso. Sim, aqui é o paraíso para quem tem dinheiro ou para quem vem do exterior passar férias com os bolsos transbordando de grana e quando começa a ficar entediado levanta vôo e bye bye Brazil!

Estou cheia de minimizar a situação. De dizer, invista aqui, aposte ali, empreenda acolá. Até quando? Dizer que os caras não se rebelaram, que não mataram, que não transtornaram nossas rotinas, que não manipulam a Lei, a ordem, a polícia, o Governo… Esse Governo frouxo que deixa nossos bens serem extorquidos, que deixa o Brasil em estado de sítio.

Claro que não aprovo a maneira como os bandidos reivindicam seus direitos, porém, fica aí uma grande lição à população. Até bandido se organiza e BEM no Brasil. Está na hora de nos organizarmos também, de nos rebelarmos, de dizermos não, de usarmos da força se necessário para combater a covardia, o disparate da fome, da miséria, da falta de tudo e do excesso de tantos.

Os ‘manos’ já se levantaram e você, vai ficar largado no sofá?

… ainda bem que tenho estórias mais alegres para contar amanhã.