Before you make plans to attend the 2016 Summer Games in Brazil, you probably ought to see what a unique place Rio de Janeiro is, skimpy bathing suits aside.
Police in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo have killed more than 11,000 people in the past six years, many execution-style, according to a report released Tuesday by Human Rights Watch.
And whatever you do, don’t break the law there. Law enforcement there seems to have a good way to keep the court system from getting backlogged. Take no prisoners, just shoot them. From 2003 to 2009, over 11,000 killings in Rio and Sao Paulo alone and a ‘significant portion’ of 48,000 ‘slayings’ in the country.
- The São Paulo Shock Police Command killed 305 people from 2004 through 2008 yet left only 20 injured. In all of these alleged “shootouts,” the police suffered one death;
- In Rio, police in 10 military policing zones were responsible for 825 “resistance” killings in 2008 while suffering a total of 12 police fatalities;
- Rio police arrested 23 people for every person they killed in 2008, and São Paulo police arrested 348 for every kill. By contrast, police in the United States arrested over 37,000 for every person they killed in alleged confrontations that year.
