Mothers of Children Victims of Stray Bullets Protest Against Violence

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The mothers of children killed and injured by stray bullets in Rio de Janeiro protested yesterday, September 26th, in front of the Palácio Guanabara, the State government’s headquarters, exhibiting 16 school uniforms with red spots, representing blood.

According to the local press, the symbolic action remembered the 16 children shot by stray bullets this year, in clashes between police and criminal groups in the region.

One of the banners used in the protest featured the words “Answer, Witzel,” demanding action from Rio de Janeiro’s governor, Wilson Witzel, who since taking office in January has embraced strong rhetoric for fighting crime, based on the use of violence.

An eight-year-old girl was killed last Friday by a stray bullet during a gunfight with the police in a Rio de Janeiro slum, which sparked several protests from the population. Ágatha Félix was shot in the back when she was in a van in the favela of Complexo do Alemão.

On Tuesday, another 11-year-old girl was shot in the Morro da Mineira, in the central region of Rio de Janeiro. Vitória Ferreira da Costa was shot in the leg and survived.

On Monday, Wilson Witzel commented on the death of the 8-year-old, in statements to the press, saying he has achieved “satisfactory results” in the fight against crime and that it will not be the death of that child that will halt his anti-crime project.

“I am a father, I have my children at home, I look at them lying in bed and I think: ‘tomorrow, that mother will not have her child lying in bed, so she can look at her, so she can cuddle her. (…) I am a person with feelings. (…) Now, it is not because of such a terrible event that we are going to stop the State”, stressed the governor.

The next day, the governor of Rio de Janeiro changed the rules for granting salary bonuses to police officers by reducing crime indicators in the state, eliminating the reduction in deaths in the service from the targets to be achieved.

The monetary bonuses were paid semi-annually and, in the case of deaths committed by state police officers, the bonus was paid to units achieving a reduction in the number of occurrences.

“With the change announced today [Tuesday], killing more or less is no longer a factor to be considered by the officer in the calculation of a potential bonus,” Robson Rodrigues, a public safety specialist and former chief of General Staff of the State Police, told Globo.

“It’s a regrettable step back since the old system format required greater professionalism from the police. The change is a bad sign. In practice, reducing the number of deaths committed by officers is no longer a goal pursued by the police,” added Robson Rodrigues.

After Wilson Witzel‘s coming into state power, the number of people killed by the police increased significantly compared to previous years.

Between January and August, 1,249 people were killed by police in Rio de Janeiro, according to the Institute of Public Safety.