Shots That Killed Emilly and Rebeca in Rio de Janeiro Came from Military Policy, Says Grandmother

[Judi Lynn]

Police say officers at the scene did not fire; family protested this Sunday

Dec.7.2020 2:01PM

RIO DE JANEIRO and RIO DE JANEIRO

Relatives and neighbors of the two girls shot to death in Duque de Caxias, in Baixada Fluminense, gathered on Sunday (6) in protest in the city center, reiterating accusations that the police shot the girls.

The protest also brought together community leaders and the black movement, who recalled statistics on violence against the black population in the country.



RIO DE JANEIRO , 06.12.2020 , BRASIL , Relatives and neighbors of the two girls shot to death in Duque de Caxias, in Baixada Fluminense, gathered on Sunday (6) in protest in the city center. Credito Nicola Pamplona / Folhapress


Rebeca, 7, and cousin Emilly Victoria Silva dos Santos, 4, were shot while playing at the door on Friday night (4), in a community known as Barro Vermelho. Rebeca was hit in the chest and Emilly in the head.

On Saturday (5), the Military Police said that police officers who were nearby at the time of the deaths did not fire. This Sunday, he said he had opened a procedure to investigate the case, in collaboration with the Civil Police.

https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/internacional/en/brazil/2020/12/shots-that-killed-emilly-and-rebeca-in-rio-de-janeiro-came-from-military-policy-says-grandmother.shtml?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsen

(Short article, no more at link.)

[Judi Lynn]

1. Killing of two girls stokes outrage over Brazil's horrific toll of black lives

Tom Phillips in Duque de Caxias
Mon 7 Dec 2020 13.43 EST

Shooting of cousins aged just four and seven, allegedly by police, heightens calls for national reckoning over ‘genocide’

Tom Phillips in Duque de Caxias
Mon 7 Dec 2020 13.43 EST


The shooting of two young black girls – who had between them enjoyed fewer than 11 years of life – has sparked outrage in Brazil and intensified the debate over police violence and structural racism in a country still grappling with the legacy of slavery.

Emily Victoria Moreira dos Santos and Rebeca Beatriz Rodrigues Santos, cousins aged four and seven, were killed on Friday night as they played outside their grandmother’s home in Barro Vermelho, a redbrick favela on Rio’s rundown northern fringe.

. . .

Fifty-six per cent of Brazil’s 211 million citizens identify as black or brown but last year nearly 80% of those killed by police and 75% of murder victims were black.

One of the most recent victims was João Alberto Silveira Freitas, a 40-year-old father-of-four who was beaten to death by security guards outside a Carrefour supermarket in Porto Alegre on the eve of Brazil’s black awareness day. That horrific attack, which was caught on camera, sparked street protests in several major cities and was compared to the killing of George Floyd in the US.

Flávia Oliveira, a prominent black broadcaster, called such killings part of “the toxic legacy of slavery” in a country that was the last western nation to abolish the practice, in May 1888.

More:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/dec/07/brazil-girls-killing-black-lives-matter