cijfers, statistieken en meer leugens

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – On Wednesday, April 18th, Rio de Janeiro’s Instituto de Segurança Publica – ISP (Public Security Institute), released the state’s much-anticipated crime statistics for March 2018, the first full month of the federal military intervention.

Brazil President Michel Temer ordered the military takeover of Rio de Janeiro’s public security sector back on February 16th. At the time, the state was already in the midst of registering unprecedented surges in violence and crime with some categories reaching near thirty-year high.

Despite the military takeover, robberies in Rio actually rose to record-breaking levels in several key categories, including car theft, cargo theft, pedestrian robberies, and cell phone theft. Vehicle thefts in March totaled 5,358, a seven percent increase from the 5,002 registered in March 2017 and the most ever recorded for the month since the ISP began tracking car thefts in 1991.

There were 917 cargo thefts in March and 7,655 pedestrian robberies, both ISP all-time highs, and far surpassing the same period in 2017. However, the ISP report points out that many of the March 2017 figures can be considered “underreported” due to the Civil Police strike going on at the time.

Public security expert José Ricardo Bandeira added that the main problem is that Brazil’s military is not being placed in high crime areas, but rather they are being mostly used to patrol Rio’s Zona Sul (South Zone).

“There is no point in reinforcing the patrol along the border of Zona Sul and Barra,” he exclaimed. “It serves to give visibility to the operation but does not result in a reduction of the indexes. Crime, in general, is in other regions.”

“It will not be magic,” said the Governor Pezao . “We are at a very difficult time in the state, with a lack of investments and resources, but I’m sure we will improve these numbers month by month….[The] Armed Forces are planning to reverse this picture.” (source www rio times)