Brazil, police violence rose by 61% in Sao Paulo under far right governor Tarcisio Freitas

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In Brazil, far right Sao Paulo governor Tarcisio Freitas oversees one of the nation's most violent police forces, but it has not been very effective in fighting crime. Our correspondent Brian Mier has more. teleSUR

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00:01And in Brazil, far-right Sao Paulo Governor Tarcísio Freitas oversees one of the nation's most violent police forces,

00:08where it has not been very effective in fighting crime. Correspondent Ramir has more.

00:14Sao Paulo Governor Tarcísio Freitas, a staunch ally of ex-president Jair Bolsonaro,

00:21who is rapidly emerging as a 2026 presidential hopeful for the Brazilian far-right,

00:26campaigned on a promise to be tough on crime. He's put more police on the streets.

00:31But last year, the state suffered its highest number of rapes in history,

00:35and the number of killings by police officers rose by 61 percent.

00:40I witness police violence on the streets constantly.

00:47I have been closely following the issue of police violence.

00:51And I see that it's increasing every day because the current state government in Sao Paulo,

00:59run by Governor Tarcísio de Freitas,

01:02has been encouraging the police to become more violent.

01:05In downtown Sao Paulo, Governor Freitas' military police have targeted street vendors in a series of sweeps,

01:12during which they confiscate their goods,

01:15in some cases beating and even killing them in the process,

01:18as happened to Ngagne Mabaye, a Senegalese immigrant, earlier this year.

01:24He was eating lunch with his vendor's cart closed at his side.

01:33A group of police officers came up and tried to seize his merchandise.

01:39He tried to stop them from taking it.

01:41He was completely surrounded by police officers,

01:45and he picked up a steel bar to defend himself and hold on to his things.

01:50They shot him and he died on the spot.

01:53They killed our Senegalese brother,

01:56simply because he was trying to work.

01:58There were over 14,000 cases of rape registered in Sao Paulo last year,

02:02with over 11,000 happening to children under the age of 14.

02:06The number of killings by police officers rose from 504 in 2023 to 813 in 2024,

02:14when 40% of all killings registered in a state were committed by police officers.

02:19There is an over-investment in repressive action,

02:28in detriment to prevention and intelligence,

02:30and this is increasing the number of police killings.

02:35So this increase in police killings is closely tied to political choices.

02:39As in many other places around the world in recent decades,

02:43promising to be tough on crime is an effective election strategy.

02:47However, the policing systems resulting from these campaign promises

02:50rarely seem effective in actually fighting crime.

02:53Brian Muir, Telesur, Sao Paulo.

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