Corruption, cleanup, and outrage.

Kant's notion of time as the place of history and of space as the place of geography leads us to reflect that corruption is neither a new nor an unknown phenomenon. Rather, it is a modified phenomenon. It changes in type, context, dimension, and consequences, requiring an analysis of the social and political formation of countries and societies for its understanding.

As Odair da Silva shows us, corruption is independent of political systems and regimes, being present in liberal democracies, socialism, fascism, Nazism, social democracy, theocracies, military dictatorships, and populist governments, to a greater or lesser degree, depending on the score and the conductor.

During the military government, given the lack of transparency, we had no idea of ​​the scale of the problem and began to believe and dream that democracy, this kind of balm for all ills, would be its solution. What a delusion! With democratization, corruption only took on new forms and included new actors.

Political parties change, ideologies change, new political personalities emerge, governments come and go, but corruption schemes continue to make their presence felt at all levels and dimensions of our State, but undeniably, within the sphere of public security, the problems are numerous, well-known, and alarming.

Corruption is certainly not unique to Brazil, but it is not without reason that some time ago a major American newspaper published that corruption is endemic in our country. Although it may cause us indignation to read such an article in a foreign newspaper, the facts are showing that, unfortunately, in our public administration corruption is endemic and more common and organized than our vain philosophy dreams of.

In this sense, the execution of Judge Patrícia Acioli, in addition to exposing the deep problems of corruption in the police and the advance of organized crime in our country, draws our attention to the fact that, not infrequently, in police activity, violence and corruption go hand in hand, since both practices are related to the non-compliance with laws and norms of social coexistence.

According to Rio de Janeiro-based Colonel and professor Jorge da Silva, condoning violence is encouraging corruption, and it is a great mistake to encourage one and condemn the other. Just ask the former commander-general of the Rio de Janeiro Military Police who appointed and kept in command of a battalion, claiming that it had been successful in reducing crime rates, an officer who was already facing 12 administrative proceedings. Look what happened!

This is not about seeking justifications for police corruption or excuses for the lack of vigorous government action against it, but about drawing attention to the fact that corruption does not survive on its own and that, often, short-term public security policy is synonymous with death squads.

Robert Klitgaard, in his work "Corruption Under Control," argues that corruption is a crime of calculation, not passion, because, from this perspective, its roots are more closely linked to the material conditions that allow it to occur than to a lack of moral or ethical principles. Thus, according to Klitgaardian thought, corrupt behavior mainly involves three variables: the opportunity for the illegal act to occur, the chance of the corrupt action being discovered, and the probability of the perpetrator being punished.

How wonderful it would be if police corruption were a problem in itself, a result of individual character flaws, solvable by changing the curricula of training courses and by requiring the submission of asset declarations for the purpose of monitoring the asset evolution of public security professionals, as the Government of the State of Rio de Janeiro intends, certainly based on the assumption that each man or woman is an island and, therefore, their behavior cannot be directed towards good or evil by the context, by examples and by the interests of rulers, leaders, hierarchical superiors, colleagues and sectors of society itself.

You can't change a people's culture without changing their education. It's a tough task, and difficult to undertake given the current situation in the generation. We may even know the solution, but how can we make it a reality if its causes are lost in the dust of time?

As with everything in life, there is a positive side to the ethical crisis we are experiencing, as public opinion is becoming increasingly intolerant and indignant towards corruption, despite still feeling disheartened by impunity.

Although deeply rooted in Brazilian political culture, police corruption and its mother, endemic social and political corruption, can indeed be eradicated. However, one question remains: who is responsible for organizing the reaction against the passivity and normalization of the scandal involving the Brazilian state? Honestly... I don't know, but one thing is certain, I echo the words of journalist Reinaldo Azevedo: “This writer does not believe in the 'people' as an entity of abstract value, which materializes in the masses on the street. I believe in 'peoples' within a people, in currents of opinion, in activism, in organized groups—and it matters little whether what mobilizes them is Facebook, Twitter, a megaphone, or a church bell. There is no such thing as a spontaneous popular movement.”

In conclusion, I leave a warning for the indignant. Let us not expect the necessary ethical cleansing of our nation to come from those occupying the Presidential Palace, because, as Father Antonio Vieira confirmed and warned the sovereign who sent him to identify corruption and corruptors in Brazil, in this country "whoever tries to correct all this evil risks being left without anyone to govern with."