In the following we publish an unofficial translation of an article of the newspaper A Nova Democracia, about the murder of a worker by the MIlitary Police and the protests against it.
RJ: Residents revolt after cowardly shooting of worker by military police
Residents of Morro do Queto in Sampaio, north of Rio de Janeiro, protested for three hours in the late morning and evening of June 6. The demonstrators were demanding justice for Reginaldo Avelar Porto, called Duin, who had been murdered by a Military Police (MP) officer with a shot to the chest.
Reginaldo was at a scrapyard when a fight broke out among the workers themselves. On the way from the front part of the plant to the scrap yard, a police officer intervened in the dispute and shot the worker in the chest. Reginaldo Avelar Porto was 37 years old and worked as a caregiver for the elderly. Upon learning of the cowardly murder, Duin's family members and acquaintances began a protest denouncing the military police and demanding justice. The AND team was on the scene when the protest began, and along with the masses, exclusively reported on it and distributed copies.
About 50 residents gathered at the entrance of the favela on Avenida Marechal Rondon had been killed to protest the murder of the worker. The residents erected barricades and held up placards demanding justice. Military police cracked down on all participants in the demonstration, suppressing the right to demonstrate. Tear gas, shock grenades and rubber bullets were used indiscriminately and even hit the relatives of the worker killed by the policeman. At the entrance of the hill (which is near a municipal school and a nursery) there were many children and elderly people who had to defend themselves against the cowardly attacks of the police.
After the attacks of the murderous police, the local residents rebelled and did not allow the dispersal of the demonstration. The residents condemned the police violence and returned to the streets. "They only come to the favela to kill the residents. And every resident leaves as an illegalized pusher. They leave as bandits. The police come to kill us," complained one protester.
Family members were present and denounced the cowardly murder, in which a shot was fired into the chest of the worker. Residents said Reginaldo was loved by everyone, including the neighborhood's children. A worker interviewed by AND lamented that there was no reason for the military police to intervene in the fight, certainly not with a shot in the chest:
- They have no right to interfere in a workers' dispute. They don't have to kill, they have to disappear and not shoot the youth! This was not an accident!
- What will we say to the child who became an orphan because of the man's absence? Another black shanty town resident who will grow up without a father. Another one! - denounced another resident.
- A cousin of Reginaldo denounced that this was not the first action of the residents against police violence. Two years ago, residents protested against military police who shot a child in the hand during an attack on the community.
- Another protester denounced that police officers tried to throw Reginaldo's body into the police van and take him away from the scene of his murder, an illegal routine practice in which the MP changes the crime scene to falsify evidence.
- It looked like he was an animal! He said to one of his colleagues: Take your hand away. He didn't help. A man from the car picked him up and took my cousin away. And he did not even want to know! - denounced a resident.
THE MASSES ERECT BARRICADES AND DEMAND JUSTICE
More than three times the police attacked the masses without managing to stop the just protest. Footage from AND shows police officers throwing grenades in the direction of the demonstration for no reason, at lunchtime when children are going home. Women with infants and children returning to their homes were hit by smoke from tear gas grenades.
Even under attack, residents were not intimidated and rebelled against police violence. Three barricades were erected at different access points to the community, two on Marechal Rondon Avenue and one at the entrance to the Noel Rosa tunnel, which provides access to Vila Isabel. Residents also defended themselves with bottles and stones against the grenades dropped by the police.
That night, almost 12 hours after the murder, the crowds again took Marechal Rondon Avenue, paralyzing traffic and facing bloody repression from the shock troops of the military police.
CLÁUDIO CASTRO: MURDERER AND TERRORIST
The demonstration by Reginaldo's family and the residents of Morro do Queto in response to the cowardly murder illustrates the deplorable situation. During Claudio Castro's term, the state military police alone were responsible for 330 deaths in police operations. This figure does not include murders committed by police officers outside of an operation, as in the case of the brutal murder of Reginaldo.
The inhabitants of the favelas no longer limit themselves to lamenting, but demand justice and denounce all the crimes committed by the murderous and terrorist deputy Cláudio Castro. Just as they oppose the genocidal government of Bolsonaro and the generals who promote all kinds of massacres against the working population.
Watch the video produced by AND, which reports exclusively:
