By EUGENIO BUCCI*
Will the governor of São Paulo start defending human rights? Don’t bet on it
The governor of São Paulo, Tarcísio de Freitas, changed his mind about Public Safety. From one moment to the next, he began to support the use of so-called “body cameras” by the Military Police. It was a U-turn in the stance of the Palácio dos Bandeirantes.
But, outside the staging, will this make any difference? In part, yes. If the governor keeps his (new) word, the troops will have to deal with more supervision. Fundamentally, however, the answer is no. Life and death will continue as before in the Abrantes barracks, and outside the barracks as well. The police will not wake up feeling good on Monday just because they have a optical device in their uniform.
Things change, but they don’t change. Does it seem contradictory? Not really. Political discourse has this very curious prerogative: it can spectacularly retract what it said yesterday and not change a thing, in a well-known paradox. “For things to remain the same, everything must change,” we read in the novel. the leopard, by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa. It is about giving up the rings so as not to have to give up the fingers, or, returning to the government's perspective, it is about giving up on the cameras so as not to have to give up on the weapons.
Last Thursday, the head of the São Paulo Executive Branch declared that he was “completely wrong” when he resisted the use of the equipment. He was wrong indeed. The camera will be useful. Installed more or less at the height of the shirt pocket, it will record everything that passes in front of the agent, and this will benefit society.
It is true that if a soldier is off duty and kills a man with eleven shots to the back, nothing will be documented, since the camera will also be off duty. But, at least during the official shift, the lens attached to the medal slot will help to reduce, as the technical term goes, police “lethality.”
Besides, a statistically less homicidal police force is not a better police force. If you hang one of these devices around a pitbull's neck, it will not behave like a chihuahua. What we will have on the streets will be the same old, worse police force, but with a new embarrassing factor on its lapel. Innovation is limited to appearances.
In fact, what led to the change in the convictions of the head of the state executive branch was not a matter of principle, but a stumble in his image. The metamorphosis of the president's opinion was a response to the scenes of a soldier throwing a young worker from a bridge.
It was Sunday night, December 1st. The video, recorded anonymously, was featured on social media, news websites and the most watched television news programs, with countless replays. The soldier grabs his victim by the ankles and, with a careless pull, makes him roll over the guardrail and fall from a height of three meters. The executioner gets rid of the young man as if he were throwing away rubbish, without even looking to see how the guy fell down there. What appears in the video is the maximum degree of indifference to human life: the portrait of a government.
Not that it is surprising. Every day we have witnessed multiple monstrosities in this regard. Just the day before yesterday, a scene of three police officers punching an unarmed woman who was walking on the sidewalk was all the rage in the city. Yesterday, the newspaper reported the murder of a young man in São Vicente, with his mother as a witness. The uniform and the filth are a perfect mix. Amidst so many atrocities, the incident of the young man being ejected as if he had been spat upon became a visual synthesis. Even though it did not cause death or serious injuries, it became a symbol of public insecurity.
Pressured by the scandal, Tarcísio de Freitas came out with this statement of his own, confessing that he was “completely wrong.” Perhaps he now wants to be seen as “completely right.” In his quick self-criticism, he acknowledged the possibility of being one of those responsible for encouraging excessive behavior in the military. His words sounded like a slip of the tongue: “The discourse of legal certainty that we need to give to security professionals to firmly combat crime cannot be confused with a free pass to do anything.” In the end, he concluded: “We will not tolerate that.”
Are you really not going to tolerate it? So the government will start defending human rights? Don't bet on it. Even if they fire the security secretary, don't bet on it. It all comes down to a sting operation. marketing to cover up an escalation of terror that compromises the incumbent's electoral capital.
Furthermore, the far right has shown itself to be skilled at changing in order to remain the same. In Germany, the AfD (Alternative for Germany), which brings together anti-democratic forces, now has a new leader. Her name is Alice Weidel. She is 45 years old and is a lesbian (a new look), but she is also xenophobic (true to tradition). Chameleon-like fascism. We will still see pro-Bolsonaro landowners (protected by thugs with or without cameras on their vests) embracing the ecological cause to save their reputation and their businesses. Have they converted to democracy? Please, no jokes at this time.
* Eugene Bucci He is a professor at the School of Communications and Arts at USP. Author, among other books, of Uncertainty, an essay: how we think about the idea that disorients us (and orients the digital world) (authentic). [https://amzn.to/3SytDKl]
Originally published in the newspaper The State of S. Paul.
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