Bahia bans water pistols at Carnival to “curb sexist acts”

Through social media, the governor of Bahia, Jerônimo Rodrigues (PT), announced the ban on the use of water pistols during carnival revelry and other street parties under the allegation of “curbing sexist and misogynistic acts”. The use of the toy was prohibited by Decree Law No. 14,584, signed this Monday (29).

“Today we launched two important movements for security in Bahia. We signed the decree that prohibits the use of water pistols at street parties in Bahia. The law arrives to guarantee the safety and well-being of all people, curbing sexist and misogynistic acts […] We also signed the ordinance that establishes the creation of the Citizen Alert Portal, a tool for people from Bahia to register items such as vehicles, cell phones and bicycles so that, in the event of robbery or theft, an alert can be sent directly to the SSP database in the system itself. -BA”, said the governor in a post on the social network X.

The Secretary of Policies for Women (SPM) of the state of Bahia, Elisângela Araújo, thanked the governor for the “sensitivity”.

“We believe in prevention and raising people’s awareness to put an end to this type of sexist and misogynistic violence within our Carnival, which is a beautiful party and the world loves it”, said the secretary.

When criticizing the act of the governor of Bahia, federal deputy Carlos Jordy (PL-RJ) said that this type of measure represents the “PT standard of public security”.

“After the former minister Flávio Dino who celebrated the seizure of a compressed air rifle in the hands of a ‘terrorist’, now it is the turn of the governor of Bahia to sign an important decree to guarantee safety and well-being at Carnival, the ban ” , said the deputy in a post on Instagram.

According to the 2023 Violence Atlas ranking by the Institute for Applied Economic Research (Ipea) in partnership with the Brazilian Public Security Forum, Bahia is at the top of the list of the most violent states in the country. The data refers to the year 2021, when the state recorded 7,206 homicides.

In July last year, the Brazilian Public Security Yearbook named Bahia as the second most violent state during 2022, when a rate of 47.1 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants was recorded.