Public Note #44 - Heinous crime committed by cruel federal highway patrolmen

Police officers trap a young Black man inside a car and he is pepper-sprayed – Reproduction

The Dom Paulo Evaristo Arns Commission for the Defense of Human Rights expresses its strongest repugnance regarding the brutal murder committed, after being tortured by asphyxiation with smoke, against an already immobilized detainee, in the municipality of Umbaúba, in the state of Sergipe, last May 25. The atrocity was committed before everyone's eyes, by federal highway police officers unworthy of the badge that symbolizes the public trust placed in them until then.

The Commission stands together with all voices of society demanding that the force of Law impose itself over the abuse of force. Beyond this perverse cowardice, the manifestly disproportionate use of criminal violence against an unresponsive person goes against all the technical norms and protocols that legitimize police action. The crime demands prompt investigation of individual responsibility, according to due legal process, which was denied to the prisoner in his summary execution, in an official vehicle that was transformed into a moving gas chamber. We will follow all the procedures to observe the faithful application of the law, in yet another barbaric case of police violence that shocks the country.

If there is unequivocal proof that the crime was committed, and strong evidence of its perpetrator, as well as a risk to public order and the investigation of the case, the torturers should be arrested and promptly removed from the prestigious position in which they were wrongfully designated and are no longer able to exercise.

The poor response of the management department of the Federal Highway Police as well as of the Ministry of Justice regarding the excesses of two disastrous police actions, in the same week, points to the connivance of the intermediate chain of command that links, at one end, a confessed torture apologist, and, at the other, unrestrained robbery groups.

The irresponsible posture of its current leaders compromises the credibility of the institution to which the Constitution delegated the important mission of policing Brazil's highways. This indignity discredits, unfairly, the serious work of the policemen who honorably fulfill their duty. Unfortunately, cases of unspeakable abuses have been more ostensible, in the last few days, than actual road patrolling.

José Carlos Dias

President of the Arns Commission

May 27th, 2022