RIO de Janeiro state police killed 652 people in the first half of 2007, 25 percent more than the same period in 2006 and nearly twice as many as New York police killed in all of 2006, according to official and unofficial tallies.
In the midst of a major crackdown on drug trafficking and kidnapping gangs in Rio de Janeiro’s sprawling favelas (shanty towns), only 11 police were killed from January to June of this year, the Public Safety Institute said.
That puts the police-civilian kill ratio at 1-to-59 during what police called “acts of resistance” to law enforcement operations.
In June alone, 83 people were killed in police action in Rio de Janeiro state, against no recorded deaths for police officers, the institute said.
According to a tally kept by Radio Noticias del Planalto (NP), more people were killed by police the first six months of the year in Rio de Janeiro (652) than were killed all of last year by police in New York City (375), which had a one-to-41 police-civilian kill ratio.
NP reminded its listeners that several civic groups last week sent a letter to state authorities criticizing police action “solely aimed at poor sectors of the population and the systematic extermination of young favela dwellers, carried out in the name of politics and security.”
0 responses so far ↓
There are no comments yet...Kick things off by filling out the form below.