There is an unstated rule over here at Qualidade de Vida: “Don’t go negative.” If people want to hear crappy things about Brazil, or Rio, or Brazilians – they can look elsewhere. There are WAY too many positive things going on in our lives to focus on the down side. Our glass is definitely half full.
(Here comes the exception.) But I want to comment on an incident of homophobic violence that happened right after the Gay Pride parade last Sunday. In general I don’t repeat news stories on the blog, but this one strikes a chord with me.
When the cops shoot gay people for no reason I make an exception to my rules.
In short, three military sergeants from Copacabana Fort were out “patrolling” (?) and came across two gay men in a park. They were not boyfriends or a hook up situation. Not that that should matter – you should see the public displays of affection by straight couples in Brazil. In this case we had two gay friends, in a park.
The armed military men began to harass the young guys (20s maybe) and demand documents, etc. Then they started with the homophobic insults and humiliation. Cops on kids. Nice. Then one of the brainiacs needed to make his homophobia known even more severely. He pulled his gun and shot one of the kids in the stomach. Two young guys in a park – one shot by a f**king a**hole in a military uniform.
The young man is ok. The bullet passed through his torso and missed all organs. He went to the hospital, then the police to report the incident. To their credit the military did a full investigation and brought the young man out to the fort to identify which men were involved in the incident. He identified the shooter and then after some questioning the guy confessed.
The military sergeant is spending some time in jail awaiting trial. Scumbag.
Unfortunately, there is an issue in Brazil with untrained military and police officers who live outside the rules. Don’t get me started. Glass half full…
But I had to smack down the authorities for their offense against my people.
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4 comments:
Outrageous! I wonder if this is the same bully that used to beat up on other kids in school? I hope they throw the book at scum like that.
On a happy note... IT'S FRIDAY!
Have a great weekend Jim. Don't let crap like this get you too down. The victim survived and hopefully will see justice served.
-Chris
www.floridaguyinbrazil.com
WTF!
Jim, this is not an offense against "your" people. This is an offense against humanity. Period.
I'm outraged with/for you, but thrilled that he's being punished and the young man is going to survive. thanks for breaking your self-imposed rules and bringing this to our attention.
Jim,
Love your blog rules!
I am with you, this is a total outrage, even worse because we know the crime was of a homophobic nature.
Like you said, the half full part is that we heard about it and justice is in progress.
I also agree with you that Brazil has a long way to go before they get well trained policemen patrolling the streets of Brazil.
Again, I have to say they have made some progress in recent years.
We just would have never even heard about this incident in the 60's, 70's or early 80's in Brazil.
The dictatorship would have swept it under the rug.
Ray
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