Rio commander calls police the best "insecticide"
By Stuart Grudgings
RIO DE JANEIRO, April 16 (Reuters) - A Rio de Janeiro police commander called his force the "best social insecticide" after killing at least 9 suspected drug traffickers in a slum, but rights activists said the comment showed police were targeting the poor.
Colonel Marcus Jardim, whose quote was carried by two national newspapers on Wednesday, was alluding to an epidemic of mosquito-borne dengue fever that has swept Rio's poorer areas in recent weeks and killed at least 80 people.
"The military police is the best remedy for dengue. No mosquito is left standing. It's the best social insecticide," he was quoted as saying.
Jardim said in a radio interview on Wednesday that his comments were "jargon" and that Tuesday's operation was a response to drug traffickers.
His comment appeared shocking even in city where police carry out almost daily military-style operations in its 600 slum areas. The operations target drug traffickers who control the "favelas", but residents are often hit in firefights between the police and gangs.
Sandra Carvalho of the Justica Global rights group in Rio said Jardim's comment shows he viewed public security as "social cleansing in which every poor person has to be wiped out ... This is the logic of public security in Rio."
Tim Cahill of Amnesty International in London said the remark reinforced perceptions that the police did not understand their responsibility to society.
"Their supposed policy of combating crime through violent operations and killing has only increased the insecurity," he said.
Last month, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva made a rare visit to Rio's slums to launch an infrastructure project and told police to treat residents with respect.
Rio's police said they killed 1,330 suspects last year, up a quarter from the year before.
In Tuesday's operation, 100 members of the elite BOPE squad and other military police entered the Vila Cruzeiro slum in the north of the city. A firefight with suspected drug traffickers left at least 9 suspects dead and 6 wounded, with 14 people arrested.
As usual in such operations, schools and shops in the area were closed and residents were wounded. The Estado de Sao Paulo newspaper listed several people, including a 14-year-old boy, admitted to hospital with bullet wounds. (Additional reporting by Pedro Fonseca; Editing by Alan Elsner)
RIO DE JANEIRO, April 16 (Reuters) - A Rio de Janeiro police commander called his force the "best social insecticide" after killing at least 9 suspected drug traffickers in a slum, but rights activists said the comment showed police were targeting the poor.
Colonel Marcus Jardim, whose quote was carried by two national newspapers on Wednesday, was alluding to an epidemic of mosquito-borne dengue fever that has swept Rio's poorer areas in recent weeks and killed at least 80 people.
"The military police is the best remedy for dengue. No mosquito is left standing. It's the best social insecticide," he was quoted as saying.
Jardim said in a radio interview on Wednesday that his comments were "jargon" and that Tuesday's operation was a response to drug traffickers.
His comment appeared shocking even in city where police carry out almost daily military-style operations in its 600 slum areas. The operations target drug traffickers who control the "favelas", but residents are often hit in firefights between the police and gangs.
Sandra Carvalho of the Justica Global rights group in Rio said Jardim's comment shows he viewed public security as "social cleansing in which every poor person has to be wiped out ... This is the logic of public security in Rio."
Tim Cahill of Amnesty International in London said the remark reinforced perceptions that the police did not understand their responsibility to society.
"Their supposed policy of combating crime through violent operations and killing has only increased the insecurity," he said.
Last month, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva made a rare visit to Rio's slums to launch an infrastructure project and told police to treat residents with respect.
Rio's police said they killed 1,330 suspects last year, up a quarter from the year before.
In Tuesday's operation, 100 members of the elite BOPE squad and other military police entered the Vila Cruzeiro slum in the north of the city. A firefight with suspected drug traffickers left at least 9 suspects dead and 6 wounded, with 14 people arrested.
As usual in such operations, schools and shops in the area were closed and residents were wounded. The Estado de Sao Paulo newspaper listed several people, including a 14-year-old boy, admitted to hospital with bullet wounds. (Additional reporting by Pedro Fonseca; Editing by Alan Elsner)
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