The death of the black man Camilo

They killed him around 1979 or 80, it's not known for sure. He was a 16-year-old student, a lunch delivery boy, who lived with his parents and siblings in some impoverished community in our country. This setting could have been Rio, São Paulo, Recife, Porto Alegre, or Belo Horizonte. They didn't ask his name, much less his identification. The first bullet hit his left shoulder and the second his heart. His knees hit the ground. A crimson red flooded the cracks in that little road leading to a bridge. They killed Camilo!!! They killed Camilo!!! They killed Camilo!!!

The news spread quickly. Everyone in that community, even on the other side of the hill where the horizon rests before their eyes, soon learned what had happened. When João and Maria arrived, the body was lying there, covered by some kind of cloth. The sound of breaking bones, the crack of the whip on human skin, the hoarse voice pleading for mercy, mercy, nothing but mercy, and a silent pain in the hearts of those parents could still be heard in the alleyways. They killed Camilo! They killed his infinite loved ones! They glorified the indecency of this country without justice.

Camilo is a fictional character. But his story is real. It happens every day, ever since time began to mark the hours and minutes. People have been killing each other like this in Brazil for decades and centuries. Simply being poor and black means being denied rights, embittered by an existence as if it were an open-air prison, where wings matter little when there is no sky to embrace. In this country of many reservations and idolatries on street corners, young people are killed, women are discriminated against, the miserable, humble, and forgotten are buried, reason and life are raped.

The official narrative imposed on us about the Brazilian security system has always concealed the truth. There are never any innocent deaths. Those who die are always the criminals and murderers. "They resisted the approach, there was no choice, we had to react. We have witnesses." This legal and racist justification called "auto de resistência" (resistance to arrest) was instituted during the authoritarian regime. In that era of fierce authoritarianism and backroom dealings, the people lived suffocated, in darkness, without freedom or democracy.

Retired judge Sergio Verani explains, in an article published in January of this year, that the "resistance report" "emerged in 1969, with Service Order No. 803, from the Superintendency of the Judicial Police of the former State of Guanabara – later expanded by Ordinance E, No. 30, of December 6, 1974, from the Secretary of Public Security – which 'dispenses with the preparation of the arrest report in flagrante delicto or the initiation of a police investigation'. And it determines the application of article 292 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which provides for the preparation of the 'resistance report' in the specific case of resistance to a legal order of arrest."

The "resistance to arrest" argument is a radical inversion of reality. There is no indictment of the security agent who committed the crime. He cannot be considered a victim, nor a "good guy" in this story. In other words, what we have is a farce staged in the name of the law. And the worst part of all this is that this mark of the regime of exception and oppression still survives today, affecting Human Rights, in a fully functioning democratic state governed by the rule of law and with a Constitution considered one of the most advanced in the world.

They kill with the skill of slaughterhouse workers, with a blade sharpened on a damp stone. Images reaching us through social media and news reports warn that something is very wrong. The murder of young people, especially black youths, is terrifying us all. Lives are being taken from the company of parents, family, friends, and classmates. We are still shocked by the murder of 14-year-old João Pedro in Rio de Janeiro and 15-year-old Guilherme in the outskirts of São Paulo.

The Senate's Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry into the murder of young black people, which concluded in 2016, showed, even then, that more than 23 young black people aged 15 to 29 are murdered in Brazil every year. That's 63 per day. One every 23 minutes. According to the 2019 Violence Atlas, 75,5% of murder victims in 2017 were black. The situation worsened compared to 2016: a 4% increase. Black and poor people are the main victims. In São Paulo alone, deaths caused by police actions rose 53% in April compared to the same period last year. There were 119 cases, or one every six hours.

In 2017, the Senate's Constitution and Justice Committee approved PLS 239/2016, which amends the Code of Criminal Procedure, removing the so-called "resistance to arrest" provision from Article 292. This bill is a result of the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry (CPI) on the murder of young black people. According to the bill, if there are injuries or deaths in confrontations with security forces, an investigation will be initiated. The proposal is ready to be voted on in the Plenary. The initiative ensures, among other measures, the effective conduct of forensic examinations through the preservation of evidence, conservation and examination of traces, establishing procedures relevant to the success of criminal investigations.

I believe that the military police should reverse their operational logic and prepare for a new stage and a new era, based on an educational and democratic process, with a more humane perspective and respect for diversity and differences. This is the great leap the country needs to take: to turn this unfortunate page and write better days. Human life must be a priority; never barbarity. We know that bad examples always end up contaminating the whole, and the numbers are there to prove it. When a life is taken, we all lose a little bit of our own. 

Ending the so-called "resistance to arrest" is a huge step in the fight against impunity, violence, discrimination, and racism. It is saying no to the genocide of young Black and poor people. It is resisting, fighting the good fight, advancing in the conquest of human and social rights. There is no time to lose... The country can no longer ignore the pain of the streets and the favelas. Democracy will only be realized when the shackles are broken and when society opens its eyes and hears the song and lament of the young Black man Camilo to encounter its own history.