Kill or be killed – Rio de Janeiro Police and their fight against militias and crime gangs

Rio de Janeiro is a great city. But it is infested with multiplying small criminal “kingdoms” that terrorize this iconic place and its citizens.

That stops now. And we have the police to thank for that.

Militias and gangs largely control greater Rio de Janeiro, and if the state wants to regain control (which it does), you can do only one thing: kill or be killed.

It is the only language these terrorist cells understand, and Rio’s police now speak it very well, too.

The high indicator of the homicide rate in events involving the Rio de Janeiro Police, therefore, remains one of the hallmarks of the state’s security forces.

This is according to the new report of the Public Security Observatory Network, published on Thursday (6).

For the third consecutive year, the study analyzed 16 indicators of violence (see table below) between August 2021 and July 2022 in Bahia, Ceará, Maranhão, Pernambuco, Piauí, Rio de Janeiro, and São Paulo.

During this period, 21,563 violent incidents were analyzed in these locations.

The report also shows other excerpts, such as the one that points out that more than half of these records are police actions.

In all seven states, police-related incidents account for 55% of the study, and Rio de Janeiro’s figure is as high as 67%.

São Paulo stands out in terms of violence against children and adolescents, with a 15% increase;

Bahia has seen a 47% increase in violence against women;

Pernambuco is the state where most transwomen are killed and where most femicide is registered in the Northeast;

Piauí is surprisingly the leader in the number of lynchings. The state, along with Maranhão, also leads in cases of sexual abuse against children and adolescents

In Ceará, the number of murders increased by 75% from one year to the next, and it is the state with the most police officers killed in the Northeast.

According to the Observatory Network, monitoring is done daily through the press. Researchers collect information and feed a database that is later revised and consolidated.

The Observatory Network also aims to produce and disseminate reliable and high-quality data so public policies can be evaluated and implemented.

The report also concludes that the confrontation model does not work as a public safety policy, primarily affects black and poor people, and does not reduce crime.