“Justiceiro, for me, is a militia”, says former head of the PM about groups in Copacabana

In an interview with CNN This Thursday (7), Colonel Ubiratan Angelo, former commander of the Rio de Janeiro Military Police, criticized the formation of groups created with the aim of combating crime in Copacabana, an upscale area of ​​the capital of Rio de Janeiro. “Punisher, for me, is a militia,” he said. The initiatives emerged after the escalation of violence in the region.

“The role of punishing, repressing, persecuting, prosecuting, judging and applying criminal sanctions belongs to the State. There’s no point in people saying: ‘I don’t believe in the State’ – and they have every right to complain about the State’s actions and have a duty to hold the authorities accountable. But it cannot occupy the role of the State”, she explains.

“Behind this role is the beginning of an economic-financial activity and/or an activity with political aspirations, which gave rise to what we call the militia.”

For the former commander, “society must be attentive and the authorities, the Public Ministry and the Judiciary cannot authorize this type of criminal activity either”.

“Justice into our own hands we call criminal selectivity. And then what are you going to do? “Let’s clean up society.” Clean how? What is the criteria? Are they racial, social, religious criteria?” he asks.

Throughout the week, residents of Copacabana began to mobilize via social media to set up a kind of “task force” with the aim of combating theft and robbery in the neighborhood. In one of the groups to which the CNN had access, one participant says: “I just think it has to be with a stick! Really stupid.”

Action by vigilantes can constitute a crime

Article 288-A of the Penal Code establishes that “constituting, organizing, integrating, maintaining or funding a paramilitary organization, private militia, group or squad with the purpose of committing any of the crimes provided for in this Code” is a crime, with a penalty of four to eight years in prison.

“There is no such thing as taking justice into your own hands. Justice can only occur with the action of State agents, with the arrest of suspects and with trials that guarantee full defense, contradictory proceedings and due legal process before the Judiciary”, says Ariel de Castro Alves, specialist in rights policies. human rights and honorary president of the group Tortura Nunca Mais.

“Whoever holds the monopoly on legitimate force, at least in theory, is the State. So, when there is any insinuation that violence will carry out this private justice, this is affronting not only democracy but the structures of the State themselves”, adds professor Robson Rodrigues, researcher at the Violence Analysis Laboratory at the State University of Rio. de Janeiro (Uerj).