Link to Article: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/5/6/at-least-25-killed-in-rio-de-janeiros-deadliest-police-raid
25 people have been killed after hundreds of heavily armed police stormed into one of Rio de Janeiro’s largest slum areas, reportedly targeting drug traffickers. Although the Brazilian media widely applauded the operation, human rights activists, residents and public security specialists were horrified. “Never in my life have I seen a police operation as lethal as this,” said Bruno Soares, a researcher from Rio’s Centre for Studies on Public Security and Citizenship. Meanwhile, the United Nations on Friday urged an independent investigation. “We are calling on the office of the prosecutor to conduct an independent thorough and impartial investigation according to international standards,” said Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson for the UN’s rights office. Many residents said that most of the killings were not from shoot-outs. “One of the men asked to hide in my home. When the police came, I told them that there was someone here, as they would have come in anyway. They went to my daughter’s room and shot him instantly,” said one favela resident. A separate report from Fogo Cruzado, said that more than 100 children have been killed by stray bullets in the past five years, and the majority go unpunished.
This is an important issue because a lot of innocent people are dying at the hands of the police. According to the article, more than 1,200 people were killed by the Rio police force last year, which is surprisingly more than in the US. The article also talked about how the police were just going in and killing people and not even asking questions. If that is what the police there are doing then you do not even know if the people you are killing are criminals or not. I can not possibly imagine how scary it is to be a police officer but that is no excuse to be constantly killing innocent people. It looks like there needs to be police reform in other parts of the world as well.
The United Nations is involving itself by conducting an independent thorough and impartial investigation according to international standards. I am not quite sure how this investigation will work but it is a step to hopefully stopping the unnecessary killing of innocent people in Rio de Janeiro. This is an example of what we have talked about in class because the UN is keeping another country in check. I am not quite sure what will happen when they do conduct the investigation, but only time will tell. Hopefully they will be able to prove some wrongdoing and work with Brazil with some police reform.