000 03376nam a22003137a 4500
003 LIBRIS
005 20150727101658.0
007 cr |||||||||||
008 100217s2009 nyua sb 000 0 eng c
020 _z1564325784
020 _z9781564325785
040 _aDOS
_dsipr
041 _aeng
245 1 0 _aLethal force
_h[electronic resource]
_bpolice violence and public security in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo
246 1 3 _aPolice violence and public security in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo ;
246 1 3 _aBrazil, lethal force
260 _aNew York, NY
_bHuman Rights Watch (HRW)
_c2009
300 _a1 PDF-file (122 p.)
_bill.
500 _aTitle from PDF title page (Human Rights Watch, viewed Dec. 22, 2009). ;
500 _a"This report was researched and written by Fernando Riberio Delgado, Alan R. and Barbara D. Finberg Fellow in the Americas Division of Human Rights Watch."--P. 118.
520 _a"The Brazilian states of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo have been plagued for years by violent crime, much of it carried out by illegal drug-trafficking gangs. Reducing this violence and containing these gangs represents a daunting and at times dangerous challenge for the police forces. Too often, however, rather than curbing the violence, police officers in both states have contributed to it through the unjustifiable use of lethal force. The Rio and São Paulo police have together killed more than 11,000 people since 2003. In nearly all these cases, the officers involved have reported the shootings as legitimate acts of self-defense. In Brazil, these cases are referred to as 'resistance' killings. Given that police officers in both states do face real threats of violence from gang members, many of these 'resistance' killings are likely the result of the use of legitimate force by the police. Many others, however, are clearly not. After a comprehensive, two-year investigation into policing practices in Rio and São Paulo, Human Rights Watch has concluded that a substantial portion of the alleged resistance killings reported in both states are unlawful extrajudicial executions. In addition, some police officers are members of 'death squads' or, in the case of Rio, illegal armed militias, which together are responsible for hundreds of murders each year. In many purported resistance killings and killings by death squads, police officers take steps to cover-up the true nature of the killing, and police investigators often fail to take necessary steps to determine what has taken place, helping to ensure that criminal responsibility cannot be established and that those responsible remain unpunished. Impunity for extrajudicial executions committed by police officers remains the norm. A principal cause of this chronic impunity is the fact that the criminal justice systems in both states rely almost entirely on police investigators to resolve these cases. So long as this arrangement remains unchanged, police impunity will prevail, police killing rates will stay high, and the states' legitimate efforts to curb violence and lawlessness will suffer."--P. [4] of cover.
651 7 _aBrazil
_xhuman rigths
_xviolations
700 1 _aDelgado, Fernando Riberio
710 2 _aHuman Rights Watch (HRW)
852 _hCd105 G10_172
856 4 0 _uhttp://www.hrw.org/node/87020
942 _cREP
946 _asip1002
999 _c74560
_d74560