Insurgence on Brazil streets after Black man was beaten to death in racist attack

BRAZIL

Uprisings were sparked in Brazil following a racist attack towards a person of Black origin, by two white security guards.

Welder João Alberto Silveira Freitas (40) was beaten to death by two white security guards at a Carrefour supermarket unit in Porto Alegre, southern Brazil, on Thursday night (19). One of the racist guards was later identified to be a military policeman by the name of Giovani Gaspar da Silva.

In response to another racist attack, collectives and Black peoples’ organizations carried out demonstrations across the country in front of Carrefour brand stores, causing a boycott and preventing customers from shopping. In some places, courageous protesters set fire to the stores.

 

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• Eight out of ten people killed by police in 2019 were Black according to the Brazilian Public Security Yearbook 2020. The study was conducted based on the 6,357 victims of police violence last year.
• In 2019, 74.4% of the 39,561 homicide victims were Black. The rate rises to 79.1% when the murderer was a policeman. For Amanda Pimentel, a FBSP researcher, the killing of Black people by police forces is something that has become part of police culture.

In other cases involving the Carrefour brand, an employee of the store died due to complications generated by Covid-19 while he was working and the store manager decided to hide the body and keep the store running. Also involving the same brand, a store employee poisoned a dog that used to stand in front of the store in Osasco, Sâo Paulo.

When asked about the recent case, the fascist vice president Hamilton Mourão classified the death as “regrettable” and said that the case is of a “totally unprepared security.” Being asked repeatedly by journalists, the vice president denied that the crime may have been racially motivated.

“Regrettable, right? Unfortunate that. That is unfortunate. In principle, it is totally unprepared security for the activity he has to do […] For me, there is no racism in Brazil. That’s something they want to import here to Brazil. It doesn’t exist here,” said Mourão.