Beto and the feud with teachers in Paraná
How long will we be governed by murderers and bloodthirsty individuals like the governor of Paraná? How long will protesting workers fighting for their rights be treated like highly dangerous criminals?
The images that reached us through television and especially the internet clearly show everything that happened in the civic center in Curitiba. It had everything. But contrary to what the name of the place where a true massacre of teachers occurred suggests, there was a lack of civic-mindedness. Civility. Even civility. The brutality and intransigence of the local police, directed by Governor Beto Richa, puts any tyrant to shame. Not even the president of Indonesia would have been so merciless and insensitive to the pleas for clemency from the teachers who were demonstrating there in favor of their rights. There, in Indonesia, drug traffickers are condemned to execution by firing squad. People who violate the laws of the country. Criminals. Here, in Brazil, more specifically in Paraná, teachers are condemned to execution by firing squad. People who educate and help in the formation of good citizens. Workers.
Not even the most dangerous criminals, and there are many of them in our country, receive the kind of treatment the police gave to the teachers in Paraná. Tear gas (or should I say immoral?), pepper spray, rubber bullets, and even pitbull dogs were part of the bloody reception prepared by the state government for the protesters. Some say there was a confrontation. How can there be a confrontation between unarmed civilians and heavily armed police officers? What risks did the teachers present represent to public safety and order? Would they pull out 30cm caliber rulers from their briefcases and backpacks and fatally strike the defenseless police officers? Would they have pen guns in their pockets or put chalk in their slingshots to shoot the police?
The Governor claims that police action was necessary because there were Black Bloc members among the organizers of the demonstration, and this posed a risk to the physical safety of the deputies present in the legislative assembly. What a joke. He even insinuated that the demonstration might have had a political motivation and that it had been orchestrated by the PT (Workers' Party). That's a lot of insanity for one madman. I hope that the people of Curitiba, and also the rest of Brazil, will get their revenge at the polls against this Mr. Beto Richa. May his cowardly act of ordering his police to massacre teachers in a public square serve as the grave to bury his political career. Here in Rio de Janeiro, then-Governor Sérgio Cabral and his police also acted in a very similar way against teachers and other working-class people who took to the streets to protest for their rights. This cost him a possible Senate seat in the 2014 elections. The story that he gave up his candidacy in favor of another party member is nonsense. He had resigned from the state government to be eligible to run for a Senate seat. He must have realized, or been advised, that his image among the people of Rio de Janeiro did not qualify him for election. He would be a failure at the polls. That's why he backed down. Perhaps he's waiting for the people's memory to fade and for them to forget the cowardice and arbitrary actions he committed against the population of his own state. And the people do forget, unfortunately.
What can never be forgotten is the day education was publicly attacked. We cannot forget the images of terror perpetrated by Governor Beto Richa's police. The gratuitous violence committed against teachers, state employees who were simply fighting for their rights. We cannot forget which political party the governor of Paraná belongs to. Is this the form of dialogue of the PSDB government? Is this the type of politics and politician we need in our already violent country? It is also sad to see that this man's way of governing still resonates in the opinion of so-called civilized people, such as the journalist and princess of Tucanópolis, Her Majesty Rachel Sherazade, and Senator Aloysio Nunes, who, like Governor Beto Richa, said that the police were only doing their job. Lamentable. The police would have done their job well if they had rid us of organized crime, drug trafficking, bank robberies, and pickpockets. The role of the police is not to assault teachers.
The question is, how long will we passively watch this cowardice against workers? How long will we be governed by murderers and bloodthirsty individuals like the governor of Paraná? How long will protesting workers fighting for their rights be treated like highly dangerous criminals? As a song by Gabriel, o Pensador, says, "How long will you keep taking a beating? How long will you stay doing nothing? How long will you remain a punching bag?"
That's enough!
* This is an opinion article, the responsibility of the author, and does not reflect the opinion of Brasil 247.