Police
Police are organizations operated by the state whose primary purpose is to protect the ruling class and their continued rule, through the means of whatever violence on their part is “necessary”. They are either always armed, or occasionally (in a few countries) unarmed, but who can quickly become armed if need arises. They may have, on occasion, other auxiliary duties, such as traffic control, but by far their most important and central purpose is to protect the rule of one social class or another.[1]
Under capitalism, this means that their primary and most essential task is to safeguard the rich, their property, and their exploitative system of capitalist class rule. Capitalist police also function as strike-breakers, evictors of the homeless, and agents of state terrorism.[2]
By country
United States
Police in the United States are generally extremely racist with few exceptions. There have even been a very large number of murders of unarmed Black Americans in particular by racist white cops just in the past few years as of 2024. The exact number of racist killings perpetrated by police in the United States will likely always be unknown, and only now is a database being created to gather this data for just some of the police departments in the US.[3]
Brazil
Police massacres are common in Brazil,[4] and are often kept away from public knowledge. Some of the police-involved massacres:
- In 1992, 111 prisoners were killed and thousands were injured in the Carandiru penitentiary complex during a riot.[5] The bodies were piled up by other prisoners.
- In 1959, workers responsible for the construction of Brasília protested against the unsanitary conditions where they lived, including the ausence of bathrooms, food contaminated with cockroaches, few beds for hundreds of workers and much more. 9 workers died and 30 were injured.[6][7]
- In 2021, 29 residents of the Favela do Jacarezinho were killed in a bloodthirsty massacre triggered by the police's "Exceptis" operation.[8]
- In 2022, 23 people were killed in the Vila Cruzeiro Complex as a result of the wave of police operations in Rio de Janeiro, lefting behind 39 massacres and 182 deaths.[9]
See also
References
- ↑ Sam Mitrani (January 6 2015). "The Police Were Created to Control Working Class and Poor People, Not ‘Serve and Protect’" In These Times.
- ↑ "And a white hood on every corner" (April 2 2023). The Red Phoenix.
- ↑ Erika Hayasaki (2015). Police Racism: A Search for Answers UCLA Blueprint.
- ↑ GENI, 2022. Chacinas Policias (PDF)
- ↑ New York Times, 1992. 111 Killed When Police Storm Brazilian Prison During Inmate Riot.
- ↑ RIBEIRO, Gustavo Lins. O Capital da Esperança: a experiência dos trabalhadores na construção de Brasília. Brasília: Editora da Universidade de Brasília, 2008.
- ↑ Teixeira, Hermes Aquino. No Tempo da GEB (1956-1960). Trabalho e Violência na Construção de Brasília. Thesaurus, Brasília. 1ª ed. 1996.
- ↑ Betim, Cecília Oliveira. (2021). Deaths in the Jacarezinho massacre rise to 28. At least 13 were not investigated in the operation. Consulted on May 8, 2021
- ↑ Sobe para 26 o número de mortos em chacina policial na Vila Cruzeiro (RJ). Uol. 26 May 2022.