PN #67 - Operação Verão (“Summer Operation”) and the dismantling of the professionalization of the São Paulo Military Police

The Arns Commission expresses concern about the direction of public security in the state of São Paulo. The violent “Operação Verão” resulted in the deaths of 56 people, most of them poor and black, and was suspended after the death of a young mother of six who had gone out to pick up one of her children from school.

This operation points not only to systematic breakdown of legality, but also to deterioration in efforts to update security policies that led to a reduction in homicides over the last decade. As the experience of Rio de Janeiro should teach us, police violence does not bring security to the population. A good police force is one that respects the population and complies with the law—not one that approaches the modus operandi of militias.

Also extremely worrying are reports of the forced retirement of colonels from the São Paulo Military Police, who have resisted the dismantling of police professionalization policies, which have led to greater efficiency and greater compliance with the limits of the rule of law.

The Arns Commission expresses its indignation at the decision of the Chamber of Deputies, approved yesterday, to fast-track the vote on Bill 1904/24, which equates abortion after 22 weeks of pregnancy with homicide.