The case of the death of PM da Rota exposes a double standard of ideological militancy

The reactions to the case of the death of Rota (Rondas Ostensivas Tobias de Aguiar) police officer Patrick Bastos Reis, 30 years old – which occurred in Guarujá, on the coast of São Paulo, on Friday (28th) – are exposing the double standard of militants ideologies about the situation of combating crime in Brazil.

Over the weekend, the São Paulo Military Police (PM-SP) carried out Operation Shield to arrest the person responsible for the murder. In the actions, police officers clashed with members of a criminal organization, and at least eight criminals were killed, according to Tarcísio de Freitas (Republicans), governor of São Paulo.

A suspect in the murder, Erickson David da Silva, 28, turned himself in to the police this Sunday (30).

In a note this Monday (31) about the police operation, the Minister of Human Rights of the Lula government, Silvio Almeida, said that “the accusations are serious” and that “a barbaric crime was committed”. The Minister of Justice, Flávio Dino, stated that “there was an immediate reaction that does not seem to be proportionate in relation to the crime that was committed”.

Neither of them mentioned the name of Patrick Bastos Reis in their statements about the case to the press. The PM left a three-year-old son.

On social networks and in the media, opinion makers reproduced ideological discourses of the same type. Several suggested that the operation would have been a kind of police revenge and repeated the idea that the action would have been “disproportionate”.

Ministers Flávio Dino and Silvio Almeida ignored, on the other hand, the four deaths of police officers that occurred in Baixada Santista in the last three months. In addition to Patrick Bastos Reis, three retired police officers were killed in May and June in Guarujá.

On the 6th of June, according to the website metropolises, retired PM Sergio Pereira was executed by organized crime with shots to the chest. On May 19, according to the portal G1two retired MPs were also killed in Guarujá while they were on the street.

Almeida and Dino did not comment on the cases.

For state deputy Capitão Telhada (PP-SP), who was once a member of Rota, the speech that there was “disproportion” in police action is misleading: when police officers enter a place dominated by criminal factions, they are always shot, and the exchange of fire is inevitable – it is not, therefore, a disproportionate retaliation for the death of a PM, but the necessary response to a circumstance provoked by organized crime itself.

“When the State puts its strength into an efficient confrontation, there will be a confrontation, because the criminal does not want to be arrested. He will exchange fire. He is used to doing that. In the Baixada, if a vehicle enters the favela , will be shot, because there they shoot at vehicles. I already exchanged fire in the Baixada, unfortunately, and I know what I’m talking about “, reports.

Trafficking lawyers and traffickers help create a narrative endorsed by ideological militants

Some reports about the police operation report that there was torture of one of the criminals killed by the police. The report of People’s Gazette was unable to prove the veracity of this until the afternoon of this Monday (31).

For Telhada, caution is needed with this type of version of the facts. He explains that, many times, the narrative disseminated by ideological militancy about confrontations between police and criminals is created by drug trafficking lawyers and by the traffickers themselves, in partnership with residents of communities involved with criminals in different degrees.

According to the parliamentarian, accusations of torture often appear after media cases, often stimulated by organized crime itself.

“This is something we’ve seen since the 1970s, with a direction suggested by crime lawyers or even by organized crime itself, which uses people who have a relationship with crime and are embarrassed, convinced or paid to give false testimonies. No I had access to the records of this specific case in depth, but this practice is already very well known. Most of the time, they are fraudulent testimonies that only have the objective of raising doubts about police action, accusing police of crimes, of torture”, he comments.

“I’ve seen one occurrence, for example, where they said that the Rota team had kneeled down the bandit and shot him in the back of the head. When the body was analyzed, he had a shot in the belly and a shot in the chest. unfounded testimonies, used to create a narrative for politicians, ombudsmen and human rights bodies biased in the political issue, with the aim of stopping police action”, adds the former member of Rota.

This Monday, the Metrópoles website revealed a leaked audio in which Erickson’s lawyer David da Silva – suspected of the murder of the Rota police officer – guides him in recording a video for social networks before turning himself in. The plan to create a narrative against the government of São Paulo is evident.

“Say that you are giving yourself up from the heart, so that all this massacre that is happening in Guarujá ends, this cowardice with a father of a family within the community. And that then, to end it, he is giving himself up”, says the lawyer in the audio Published by Metropolis. “Mention the name of Governor Tarcísio and go up. Film his face and shoot this video there”, he adds.

In the video, Erickson follows the guidelines and says: “My name is Erickson David, the ‘Deivinho’. I want to tell Tarcísio and Derrite to stop killing there, killing a ‘shovel’ of innocent people, wanting to catch my family, since I have nothing to do with it. Here’s the thing, I’m going to turn myself in, because I have nothing to do with it, and that’s it.”

>> Be part of the Life and Citizenship channel on Telegram