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Brazil sets new record for homicides

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Re: Brazil sets new record for homicides

#121

Is Brazil basically a failed state?

Maybe by design, depending on what you mean. I think organized crime and state corruption (often hard to separate the two) thrives under all that chaos. Brazil is HUGE and I see many people asking to bring control back to each of the states.

How that would help I'm not sure but it's like the government is isolated in their own safe island and they are in most cases untouchable, or just get a slap in the wrist. I'm surprised how in the poorest and uneducated areas you can get lynched or beheaded if someones yells "thief" or "rapist" (even if you're innocent) but there isn't any acts of organized violence against the government.

Re: Brazil sets new record for homicides

#122
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You simply did not live in a bad neighborhood by American standards. The worst neighborhoods in Chicago have murder rates far worse than Brazil as a country. For example Brazil has an intentional homicide rate around 30, whereas Chicago has 26 neighborhoods higher, with the most dangerous one, Engelwood, topping out at 172. To put that in context, the world's most dangerous city is Caracas at 120. http://www.chicagon…

Comparing a Chicago neighborhood to a South American city seems a little disingenuous. It might be more appropriate to compare the most violent neighborhood in Chicago to the most violent neighborhood in a similarly-sized Venezuelan city. Just as you would compare the safest neighborhoods in both cities.

"to put that into context" -me

I was giving context of what that number means. Not claiming Chicago is more violent than Caracas.

Re: Brazil sets new record for homicides

#123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most guns used in crime in Brazil are in the hands of criminals (usually traffic) and militia (which is just different criminals with ties to the police). They wouldn't exactly be purchasing those guns with their ids. A lot of it comes from the police and the army. Gun laws protect civilians against civilians. There are no school shootings here that I'm aware of for instance (exceptions are usually targeted events),…

"There are no school shootings here that I'm aware of " (Referring to brazil). Here is an entire list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_massacres_in_Brazil

Most of those are not school shootings. Here's a more comprehensive list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_school_massacres_by_de...

As you can see, the vast vast majority of school shootings occur in the US, with China coming in at a distant 2nd place. There are only 4 school massacres in Brazil (of which only 2 involve a gun according to wikipedia), and Brazil is a country with a population of more than 200 million.

Gun violence in Brazil has historically been rampant, but school shootings there are in fact _extremely_ rare.

Re: Brazil sets new record for homicides

#124
Another Brazilian here. I’ve lived in Australia for 15 years, Brisbane for 5 and Sydney for 10.

I reckon both cities are some of the cleanest safest cities in the world.

I grew up in Rio, left when I was 20. Still to this day I’ve got the street reflexe. My partner, who’s Swedish, finds it mostly amusing, sometimes rude.

For example:

I won’t sit with my back to a door or a hallway, corridor etc.

I don’t tolerate people walking behind me closer than 5-10 meters, I’ll literally turn around and pretend to tie my shoe laces or look at a shop window.

And I think most of all, I can tell immediately if someone is sussing me out, looking for a vulnerability, something of value I’m wearing, etc. I see the eyes, I hear the body language.

All of this from someone who grew up in a middle-upper class neighbourhood in Rio (Ipanema).

I’m wearing an Apple Watch and I’ve got an iPhone 8 Plus in my pocket atm. I often leave the house with a $2000 dollar Sony a7iii câmera just because I “might see something I want to photograph”. My friends in Rio simply wouldn’t comprehend...

Re: Brazil sets new record for homicides

#125

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_laws_in_Brazil "Thus, disarmament is effectively happening in Brazil,[12] as are massive gun confiscations,[13] notwithstanding its refusal by Brazilian people (at the referendum of 2005). Some argue that this will increase gun homicides. Other research shows that there is a decrease in firearm deaths correlating with disarmament.[14][15] However, 2012 marked the highest rate of gun…

They aren't.

Acquiring a firearm legally is a ridiculously bureaucratic process where you must submit to psychological evaluations by the military and "justify" your "need" to own a gun. If you manage to get approved by that long process, your reward is an extremely limited selection of revolvers chambered in weak calibers that you can't carry with you outside your home or place of work. The weapon must be registered in a military database and tied to your name and those soldiers can suddenly decide to drop by and inspect your gear. There is a limit to how much ammunition you can purchase per year, so the only way you can practice with the guns is by making your own rounds. You can't even transport your weapon from place to place without notifying them and acquiring some kind of permit. Alternatively, you can become a gun collector who can own everything but can't legally fire any of the weapons, not even for practice.

Criminals don't care about gun laws. They just purchase weapons from the black market, no background check or psychological evaluations or anything. Burglars used to consider the risks before breaking into a home, but now they're sure they will be unopposed. Drug traffickers are much better armed than the police force that ought to stop them and have become so powerful in their domains they could be considered parallel states, with laws, judges and everything. Ironically, they often stop smaller crimes like robbery from happening because not having a safe environment for people to buy drugs in hurts their profits; photos of graffiti messages warning criminals they'll be killed if they get caught robbing people can be found on the internet. The entire disarmament thing assumes the police will do their jobs and keep people safe, but the police won't even enter these areas because they're outmanned and outgunned. That's why the government felt the need to use the military in order to regain control of Rio de Janeiro. They used armored vehicles to fight against people who are technically citizens of their own country.

Don't ever let the government take your guns away.

Re: Brazil sets new record for homicides

#126
post #18

Brazilian here. Our criminality numbers are _probably_ higher than the official numbers. The country is huge and diverse, but even the most pacific states and cities are in a bad shape if compared to almost any other country. More than 70% of the deaths are related to gang conflicts. Drugs are not the only problem. We also have a lot of cargo/truck stealing, street-level robbery, an enormous black market of stolen mo…

Whats this like for civilians that are not involved? I hear about the crime in my country, but it seems unreal to me because in my area you'd never know there were dozens of murders last weekend. Does this affect your life?

I know a German guy who married a Brazilian wife and moved to Brazil to run a pharmacy. They came back after two years because they couldn't take it anymore. There were a ton of street robberies and store break-ins so they never felt safe. It must be real bad and hard to escape the violence unless you are rich and live in gated communities.

Re: Brazil sets new record for homicides

#127
Is that website cutting off the right side of the article text for anybody else?

I tried resizing the window, zooming in and out, and disabling my ad blocker, but the page steadfastly refuses to show the right side of the text. I'm using Chromium and Linux.

Re: Brazil sets new record for homicides

#129
post #106
post #18

Brazilian here. Our criminality numbers are _probably_ higher than the official numbers. The country is huge and diverse, but even the most pacific states and cities are in a bad shape if compared to almost any other country. More than 70% of the deaths are related to gang conflicts. Drugs are not the only problem. We also have a lot of cargo/truck stealing, street-level robbery, an enormous black market of stolen mo…

how do you forgot the bank robery?

Well remembered. We have a whole ATM-exploding business in Brazil. Haven't heard of anything similar elsewhere in the world.

Re: Brazil sets new record for homicides

#130
I'm another brazilian here. The crime rate is not as bad as of Venezuela, and >50% of all (ALL) brazilians desires to leave the country.

The problem is simple.

1- It's quite impossible to leave poverty due to state regulations.

2- People are killed by robbers/murderers, or jailed by officers if they try to prepare/defend for themselves.

So both economics and justice are completely distorted towards inhumanity. There's nowhere to go.

That's a sad reality, and it's not a coincidence that Brazil has the strongest world-wide desire for libertarian philosophy, by students/youngsters.

https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?q=%2Fm%2F0cpvcd

https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?q=%2Fm%2F052h3

https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?q=%2Fm%2F01hfv2

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