The Secretary of Justice and Human Rights, Felipe Freitas, highlighted the police operation against in his state, which contrasted with Rio de Janeiro, where the administration “neglected the high risk of loss of human life”.
The preliminary assessment of the operation in Bahia was carried out last Tuesday (28) in Rio de Janeiro.
“It’s a much better number [que o do Rio]. We had one death, unfortunately. But it is one death in a total of more than 30 arrests carried out with the support of the Federal Police”, he states.
The contrast between the two situations has been explored by the Lula government to show the advantages of its approach to the area of security.
According to Freitas, the operation, which focused on those accused of homicides, will help clarify investigations into crimes that occurred in the state in recent years.
“It was an operation against the leadership of Comando Vermelho, the same faction as that tragic episode in Rio de Janeiro”, he continues. “It is possible to find other ways to combat crime.”
Freitas says he does not intend to simplify the complexity of the scenario that exists in Rio de Janeiro. “But of course it seems to me that there is a normalization of the tragedy there, which is very bad, very dangerous,” he says.
“I think that, in the case of what happened in Rio de Janeiro, there was an option for a type of confrontation, a type of strategy that neglected the high risk of loss of human life”, he states.
“I have no doubt, I repeat, that there is a confrontation that is in some sense inevitable. But when you plan an operation of this type, you anticipate the risks and look for strategies with less risk of loss of human life. And this was not actually a concern present in the planning of the Rio de Janeiro operation.”
He recognizes that police lethality is a challenge in Bahia, a state commanded by the PT since 2006. The government presented this Tuesday a package of measures to reinforce the investigation and which follows a plan to reduce lethality launched two weeks ago.
“It’s a permanent challenge. Police lethality is a challenge, yes, it continues to be a challenge for us, because clashes do exist, but we have been looking for ways to combat crime by reducing the number of deaths,” he says. “I repeat, clashes are often unavoidable, but planning and strategy allow us to find more appropriate ways to carry out arrests without leaving piles of bodies along the way.”
He cites the adoption of the body camera system in Bahia and changes to punish police officers who are involved in operations with deaths, in addition to offering psychological support to these officers.
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