published27. May 2022, 22:31
A video shocks Brazil: You can see how two police officers lock a suspect in their police car and throw a gas grenade inside. The 38-year-old schizophrenic man who was stopped for a check did not survive the ordeal.
.. and then squeezed into the police SUV. Then the police ignited a gas grenade inside.
Screenshot Poder 360
The police officers pressed the tailgate onto the panicked man’s legs.
Screenshot Poder 360
The images are of unspeakable brutality: two police officers in the Brazilian state of Sergipe forcefully push down the tailgate of their service SUV while an irritant grenade burns inside the car in which a suspect is locked. Dense clouds of smoke are coming out of the car, while the man’s legs are twitching and sticking out of the car and screams can be clearly heard. “They’re going to kill him,” an eyewitness is heard saying. In fact, Genivaldo de Jesus Santos (38) did not survive the torture – the autopsy revealed suffocation as the cause of death.
In Brazil, the amateur video went viral and triggered violent reactions. The horror in the social media is great. On Thursday, dozens of protesters gathered at the site of the incident in the town of Conversionba, blocking a road and burning tires.
Victim was mentally ill
The man whom the police subjected to the fatal torture had previously been stopped by the officers as he drove by on a motorcycle. In his pocket, the police found drugs that de Jesus Santos was carrying for a schizophrenic illness. According to relatives, he became nervous during the check until the situation finally escalated and the police officers handcuffed the man and forced him into the car. ‘It was a crime. They killed him in a cruel way,” Santos’ widow told local reporters.
The police later said the man had shown “aggressive behavior” and resisted control. The officials then “immobilized” the man and used “means with limited offensive potential”. Then he “fell ill” during the transport to the police station and was later taken to the hospital, where he finally died. An investigation should now clarify the incident.
In Brazil, people are taking to the streets for Genivaldo de Jesus Santos. “They killed him in a cruel way,” his widow told local reporters.
AFP
Not an isolated case in Brazil
The incident demonstrated “how incapable the management of the security forces is to ensure that their members would follow basic rules,” said a spokesman for the Brazilian Forum for Public Safety, according to the «Daily Mail».
Deadly police violence is commonplace in Brazil, particularly once morest the country’s black population. Very few cases are cleared up. According to research by the Brazilian Public Safety Forum, a total of 6,416 people died at the hands of the police in 2020. Just a few days ago, more than 20 people were killed in a police action in Rio de Janeiro. Some of the bodies showed signs of torture, said the chief of the human rights commission of the city bar association. There is also a suspicion that some of the victims were actually executed.
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(trx/AFP)
