São Paulo Records One Homophobia-Related Crime Every Six Days

By Contributing Reporter

SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL – The São Paulo Racial Crimes and Intolerance Offenses Precinct (Decradi) registered, every six days during the period between January and April 21st, 2019, a homophobic or transphobic crime committed in the state.

Decradi is a specialized police precinct founded in 2006. It was designed after dog trainer Edson Neris da Silva was murdered by a gang of skinheads in Praça da República, in the center of the capital, for being a homosexual.

From the total number of reports made by Decradi between January and April of this year, nine were crimes of defamation, the most commonly recorded by the police. The second most reported crime was bodily injury, with seven cases. There were also three cases of threat and two cases of disparagement during the period.

GloboNews had access to details of all 147 police reports registered by Decradi via the Access to Information Act between January 2017 and April 2019, which show homophobia or transphobia as forms of intolerance.

Agripino Magalhães, an activist for the LGBT community in the Aliança Nacional de São Paulo, says he has observed a rise in cases of violence against the LGBT population over the past few months in São Paulo, through his contact with the victims.

He is critical of the fact that the São Paulo capital has only one Decradi. “The existence of this police station is not as widely known as it should be. Why does a woman, who is a victim of violence, go to a Women’s Defense Police Precinct as soon as she is attacked? Because there are several such police stations in the city. In the case of the LGBT community, only the very few who know this police station is in the city center will go to Decradi. When a record is made in another police district, the police will not categorize it as a homophobia-related crime.”

(Source: Globo)