"Police in Rio battle heavily armed gangs; Violence in slums rises sharply since Olympics awarded" by Bradley Brooks, Associated Press | October 24, 2009
RIO DE JANEIRO - They... are accused of torturing police, and even managed to shoot down a helicopter.
They are drug dealers who hold court deep inside most of Rio de Janeiro’s 1,000 slums, surrounded by foot soldiers carrying Belgian-made assault rifles, Israeli pistols, grenades, and anti-aircraft weapons. The criminals drew international attention this week following bloody shoot-outs that left more than 40 people dead, just days after Rio was awarded the 2016 Olympic Games.
And yet I am ONLY BEING TOLD on a SLOW SATURDAY -- and then the story goes RIGHT DOWN the Glob rabbit hole!
Authorities have pledged to crack down harder than ever on the criminals to ensure safety for the Olympics - while assuring the rest of the world that the violence is actually restricted to small areas of this seaside city of 6 million people. “There have always been those mini-regions in Rio de Janeiro where drug traffickers dominate,’’ said Rio state Public Safety Director Jose Beltrame. Beltrame concedes, however that those “mini-regions’’ can be found in slums dotting every corner of Rio, rich and poor.
Ask any of the 2 million slum dwellers - taxi drivers, businessmen, housewives, and police officers - whose lives are dominated by drug chieftains and violent militias, and they will tell you that defeating the criminals is formidable, if not impossible.
Time for DECRIMINALIZATION and LEGALIZATION, no?
“The police are playing a game they have already lost,’’ said vegetable seller Roberto Lima, tending his small stand at the base of the Tabajaras slum in Copacabana, where a heavy police patrol came through the day before.
Isn't that the truth everywhere?: U.S. Government Brings Drug War to U.S. Cities
Lima’s remarks reflect the fatalistic attitude pervading nearly every conversation about controlling crime in Rio. The statistics show why: In 2008, there were 5,717 homicides in Rio state, the vast majority in Rio de Janeiro’s metropolitan area. In comparison, Vancouver, Canada, which will host the 2010 Winter Olympics, had a total of 58 slayings last year.
Viva Rio, a Brazilian organization that aims to rid the city of arms, recently released a report stating that criminals in Brazil have three times as many weapons as police. Beltrame describes the difficulty of confronting the criminals on their own turf: “When we enter a slum . . . where they have their stockpile of weapons and ammunition,’’ the criminals are “defending their territory and reacting against police as if it were a war.’’
Isn't it? Ever hear of the DRUG WAR?
This week’s shoot-outs were yet another episode in an ever-repeating cycle of violence: About 150 members of the Red Command drug gang in northern Rio invaded the Monkey Hill slum controlled by rivals before dawn last Saturday. Intense gunfire ensued and police responded as they had many times before, in helicopters that hovered over the scene while fellow officers battled criminals on the ground below.
Can't imagine why the drug dealers would think it is a war.
But this time, for the first time, one of those helicopters was shot down, crash-landing in flames in a football field and killing three officers....
“We’re going to smother these traffickers and give them no breathing room,’’ police Col. Marcus Jardim told reporters this week. “We’re going in with rifles in hand. Society wants answers. We’re going to hunt down these criminals.’’
Yeah, right.
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