Democratic police state governed by the rule of law.

It may seem like a contradiction in terms, but it is not. According to the Italian Antonio Negri, it is possible to reconcile an authoritarian and freedom-restricting state with a democratic and legal framework, along the lines of Max Weber's political typology. Weber's own concept of a "rational-legal" state, governed by a positive legal order, can coexist with a techno-bureaucratic structure, in the name of formal rationality. It is the dictatorship of regulations, procedures, and disciplines – as Michel Foucault says in "Discipline and Punish". 

These observations came to light because of Congressman Rubem Valente's accusation that the Ministry of Justice is compiling a dossier on anti-fascist police officers and teachers. It's curious. The very Ministry of Justice that should be concerned with the dubious legality of hiring relatives of generals in the public service? Or with the brazen parallel power of the Rio de Janeiro militias, or with the surreptitious activity of churches in Brazilian politics, or the scandalous alienation of public assets at rock-bottom prices? For my part, this activity of spying on and cataloging the "Duce's" adversaries is typical of a Fascist State, with the aim of eliminating opposition to it. It wants to govern only with its acolytes, the churches, a certain middle class, and the unrestrained and mendacious propaganda paid for with public funds. 

No criticism, no questioning. Only poetic license, and nothing more. The law is panerygmy, praise, pure and simple adherence. The panoptic ogre they want to create in Brazil wants to invade schools, barracks, churches, shopping malls, and Brazilian homes. It wasn't enough that they've turned social media into a sewer; now they want to target other social channels and arteries. It's common for dictatorships to curtail civil and political liberties and turn society into a large prison. We are accustomed to this routine practice of authoritarian regimes in Brazil, where parties, social ideologies, and public civil action are criminalized. 

What we did not expect is that measures restricting freedoms would be created in broad daylight, while the remaining legal framework from the 1988 Constitution is still in full force. For what purposes and objectives, we will see. It is imperative and urgent that Congress, human rights organizations, political parties, unions, the press, and republican and democratic public opinion address the Judiciary, making a strong challenge to these measures and demanding the immediate safeguarding of democratic freedoms. 

Dictatorships offer no one safe passage. The price of inaction can be very high.