Police Reformation and Twitter

What can be done? Currently in the Favela slums of Rio de Janerio, there is a massive tension between the citizens and the police due to excessive police force. The youth are so scared of the police that they have turned to drug dealers as role models. Is there anyway to solve this problem?

I believe there is. Through the combination of police reformation and social networking tools, I believe that relationships in the Favelas between the police and youth will improve, resulting in fewer deaths, less victimization of the youth, and less violent crime.

One police technique the needs to be reformed immediately is the use of the Caveirao, an armored attack vehicle.

The Caveirao causes an unnecessary amount of fear in the community. People have stated that the Caveirao “comes into a community shooting in every direction, provoking complete terror with a loud-hailer and someone inside shouting: ‘We’ve come to take your souls.’” (Phillips 2009). The people believe that the police “don’t have the death sentence so they use the Caverirao instead.” The sooner police stop using this attack vehicle, the sooner the people will get relief from what has been described as “executions.”

Rio has recognized that it needs to drastically reform its police force while simultaneously reducing its crime rate. They plan on bringing in former mayor of New York City Rudi Giuliani who was been “widely credited as having been instrumental in dramatically reducing crime rates in New York” (Boyle 2009). Rio state governor Sergio Cabral, states that Giuliani will “help us in day-to-day security.” Giuliani has given his input to a project called “Peaceful Police” “where law enforcement officials try to be friends and aides the poor rather than fight them with arms and violence” (Emert 2009). Giuliani believes that by “combating small acts of disorder” you can show “the population that disorder is not the example to be followed.” Although Giuliani recognizes that New York took “six or seven years to become a success” I believe that Rio is on the right track with police reform and training, especially when the police force will be given an additional 35 million pounds to tackle drug violence (Davies 2009). With all that additional money, it is important that is it used productively.

Another potential solution is the use of social networking tools like Twitter to anonymously report drug crimes. Alec Ross (senior adviser for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton) traveled with the chairman of Twitter, Jack Doresy to Mexico to set up an electronic system where citizens could anonymously report drug crimes (Shactman 2009). The hope was that he could provide citizens with the means to undermine narcotic kingpins.

I believe the same technology can be brought to Rio as it will provide the Favela youth a way to fight back against the drug lords. Hopefully the technology will lead to busts where weapons will be confiscated. In one bust, police “seized… numerous rifles, pistols, and grenades” (Conboy 2009).

With more busts (as people are reporting crimes using Twitter), the police will ideally be able to reduce the amount of powerful weapons on the street. Currently, there are cases where the drug dealers are better armed then police officers leading the police to believe they must “fight fire with fire” (Phillips 2006). By getting weapons off the street the police will be able to move past a “shoot first ask questions later” mentality (Logan 2003).

This will allow the police to do their actual job. Protect the people.

Works Cited (In order of appearance)
Click on the title of the Article to be linked to online sources

Phillips, Tom. 2006. “Police Violence in Rio de Janeiro” Upside Down World:

Covering Activism and Politics in Latin America. January 10, 2006. Accessed

on 2/18/10

http://upsidedownworld.org/main/brazil-archives-63/166-police-violence-

in-rio-de-janeiro

Boyle, Jaylan. 2009. “Favela Pacification Plan Underway” The Rio Times News in

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. December 8^th, 2009. Accessed on 2/18/10.

http://riotimesonline.com/news/rio-politics/favela-pacification-plan-

underway/

Emert, Harold. 2009. “Giuliani Tapped to Clean Up Rio ” The Rio Times New in Rio

de Janeiro, Brazil. December 10, 2009. Accessed on 4/21/10.

http://riotimesonline.com/news/front-page/giuliani-hired-to-clean-up-rio/

Davies, Steve. 2009. “Olympic City Gets Tough on Drug Violence.” Sky News.

October 19, 2009. Accessed on 3/4/10.

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Brazil-President-Pledges-35m-To-Rio-De-Janiero-To-Tackle-Drug-Violence/Article/200910315409170

Shactman, Noah. 2009. “Social Networks as Foreign Policy.” The New York

Times Magazine, The 9^th Annual Year in Ideas. December 13, 2009.

Conboy, Cornelius. “Week of Zona Sul Drug Violence” The Rio Times News

in Rio de Janerio, Brazil. April 2009. Accessed on 3/4/10. http://riotimesonline.com/news/front-page/week-of-zona-sul-violence/

Logan, Sam. 2003. “Drug Lords and Young Soldiers” Brazilmax.com.

September 22, 2003. Accessed on 2/18/10. http://www.brazilmax.com/news.cfm/tborigem/pl_southcentral/id/8

Drug Violence's Negative Effect on Favela Youth

Rio de Janerio, the site for both the 2014 FIFA World Cup and the 2016 Summer Olympic Games (Downie 2009). But underneath the excitement of hosting two of the world’s most popular displays of athleticism and national pride lies an ugly and complex problem; drug crime in Favela slums and the negative effect it is having on the youth who live there.

Favelas are the slums and shantytowns that sprung up after Brazil’s newly freed slaves needed somewhere to live (Haemmerle 2009). The Favela’s now hang on the edges of Rio and serve as homes for more then one million urban poor (BBC 2007).

Recently the youth of Favelas have become victims of drug related gang activity resulting in violent crime as different gangs attempt to assert their authority over profits and territory (Downie 2009). The youth of the slums are victimized and experience much higher crime rates as they are poor, young, and central city residents (Leon-Guerrero 2009). Violent crime is defined by Leon-Guerreo as “actions that involve force or threat of force against others and includes aggravated assault, murder, rape, and robbery.” In Rio’s case, it involves a police helicopter being shot down and about 6000 people being killed each year (Downie 2009). To make matter worse, the number of people killed during police operations from 1999 to 2003 has tripled from 289 to 1,195 according to Justica Global (Phillips 2006).

The number of people killed during police operations has lead to increased tensions between the civilians and police. The police have adopted a “shoot first ask questions later” policy as the officers who don’t end up dead (Logan 2003). The police will “shoot at you without asking who you are” (BBC 2007) and numerous human rights groups (such Human Rights Watch) have accused “police in both Rio and Sao Paulo of routinely using unnecessary lethal force, and of thereby exacerbating the violence problem in both cities” (Boyle 2009).

It is this fear of the police that has caused the Favela youth to find non-traditional role models in the drug traffickers. Kids grow up wanting to “emulate the drug trafficker with his AR-15 assault rifle and Nike shoes” (Haemmerle 2009). Drug dealers can often gain the support of society by offering social benefits and ties of loyalty (Martin, Lopez 2009). However, there is often no other choice to survive. “They are not involved just for the money and social status. They are involved because there is often no other option for survival: to eat, buy clothes and pay rent” (Logan 2003). In most cases the youth have “no other option but to turn to the drug trade to eat.”

Drug related violence in Rio de Janerio has created an environment where citizens (rightfully so) don’t trust the police and the youth has turned to drug dealers as role models. Can anything be done to solve this social problem?

All you human rights activists out there, make sure you check out my next blog entry to find out.

Works Cited (in order of Appearance)

Online articles can be accessed by clinking on the name of the article

Downie, Andrew. 2009. “Can Rio’s Crime Problems be Solved Before the Olympics?”

Time in Partnership with CNN, October 21 2009. Accessed on 2/8/10.

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1931162,00.html

Haemmerle, Matt. 2009. “Haemmerle: In Olympics’ Rio de Janerio, favelas on fire”

The Villanovan. November 18, 2009. Accessed on 2/8/10.

http://www.villanovan.com/2.7324/haemmerle-in-olympics-rio-de-janeiro-

favelas-on-fire-1.1019106

“Inside Rio’s violent favelas” BBC News. July 4, 2007. Accessed on 2/8/10.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6266770.stm

Leon-Guerrero, Anna. 2009. Social Problems, Cominity Policy, and Social Action.

Crime and Criminal Justice, pg 323-329. Pine Forges Press.

Phillips, Tom. 2006. “Police Violence in Rio de Janeiro” Upside Down World:

Covering Activism and Politics in Latin America. January 10, 2006. Accessed

on 2/18/10

http://upsidedownworld.org/main/brazil-archives-63/166-police-violence-

in-rio-de-janeiro

Logan, Sam. 2003. “Drug Lords and Young Soldiers” Brazilmax.com. September 22,

2003. Accessed on 2/18/10.

http://www.brazilmax.com/news.cfm/tborigem/pl_southcentral/id/8

Boyle, Jaylan. 2009. “Favela Pacification Plan Underway” The Rio Times News in

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. December 8^th, 2009. Accessed on 2/18/10.

http://riotimesonline.com/news/rio-politics/favela-pacification-plan-

underway/

Martin, Dalia. Lopez, Julian. 2009. Drug Trafficking and Paternalism in Rio de

Janerio. Politica y Sociedad. Vol 46, no. 1-2, pp 205-119. CSA Illumina.

Accessed on 3/4/10. http://csaweb110v.csa.com/ids70/view_record.php?id=3&recnum=0&log=from_res&SID=ktas6dk1sbemb7els21djqqjm1