By three votes to two, the Military Justice of the State of São Paulo (TJM-SP) acquitted on Tuesday (23) military police officer João Paulo Servato, who was accused of four crimes after being filmed stepping on the neck of a black woman. during an occurrence in Paralheiros, south zone of the capital of São Paulo, in May 2020.
The judge in the case, José Álvaro Marques, voted to condemn Servato. The Public Prosecutor’s Office said it will appeal the decision.
remember the case
A 51-year-old black woman was a victim of police violence in São Paulo at the end of May 2020. The woman was assaulted in front of the establishment she worked in Parelheiros, a neighborhood located in the extreme south of the capital of São Paulo.
The images recorded a military policeman stepping on the victim’s neck, leaving her without reaction. According to witnesses and the victim himself, the police approach would have started after a vehicle parked at the door of the establishment with a loud sound, disturbing neighbors, who then called the police.
Upon arriving at the scene, the police allegedly assaulted the victim’s friend – a moment also recorded in the video. The woman allegedly tried to interfere with the approach and ended up assaulted by the police. Also according to witnesses, the victim would have been dragged by the agents and fainted several times. The woman was taken to hospital and after surgery on her leg, she received 16 stitches at the scene.
In an interview with CNN (look above), the victim’s lawyer, Felipe Morandini, said that the episode caused physical and psychological trauma. “She suffered a tibia fracture during this action and to this day she needs to undergo treatments to recover from the surgery and with great fear of retaliation. So much so that the only interview she granted was without revealing her identity,” he explained.
“When she saw that the officers were assaulting one of her acquaintances, she tried to talk to the officers, saying that she didn’t need that. According to her, this boy was almost passed out and at that moment she started to be assaulted, ”she recalled.
Asked if there was any racial aspect being mentioned by the victim, the lawyer explained. “My client did not report racial issues, but at the same time, it is a situation that seems kind of obvious. We are dealing with yet another case of police violence targeting the black population in a peripheral region,” he added.
Source: CNN Brasil
