Protesters take to streets of Brazil after police officer caught on camera throwing man over bridge
Protests have erupted in Brazil after a military police officer was arrested for throwing a man off a bridge, prompting demands to end police violence.
On Monday, December 2, local TV reports showed footage of several San Paulo police officers on a busy highway bridge next to a motorcycle when one officer lifts the legs of a man in a blue t-shirt and pushes him over the edge.
The man landed in the river at the bottom of the bridge but survived and was taken to hospital.
The video prompted hundreds of residents in San Paulo to take to the streets demanding change in a city where police violence has risen sharply over the last year.
According to CNN, the officer who threw the man, is Luan Felipe Alves Pereira, who was arrested on Thursday following his suspension and 12 other officers from duties.
In a statement Pereira said his intention was to restrain the man, who was allegedly resisting arrest, and to throw him to the ground not over the wall.
The officer has already been charged with the death of a suspect with 12 shots after a chase in Diadema, São Paulo but was archived in January this year.
The governor of São Paulo, Tarcísio de Freitas, said Officer Pereira "will be expelled from the corporation, there is no doubt about that."
Sao Paulo state’s human rights council said on Tuesday that these incidents are not the result of "bad apples" but rather a reflection of a systemic problem and have called for greater external control of the military police.
Protesters say there is a violent culture in São Paulo's military police and stressed that black and poor people are disproportionately targeted.
Julia Soares, one of the activists demonstrating in front of Sao Paulo Municipal theatre, demanded that authorities "demilitarise the military police."
She said: "This act is in solidarity with the relatives who have lost loved ones murdered by the state. But we are also demanding that the killers be punished."
Luana Alves, City Counselor of São Paulo, said: "This is not an accident. This is a state policy to put pressure on and worsen the situation of genocidal repression that we already know.
"So we're seeing a lot of murders of people from the poor communities, of Black people, by the state."
In a statement on X, De Freitas said: "Police officers are on the streets to fight crime and to make people feel safe.
"Those who shoot people in the back, those who go so far as to throw someone off a bridge, are clearly not fit to wear this uniform."
De Freitas, who took office in January 2023, is a known ally of former far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, has repeatedly voiced support for giving police allowances to kill criminals.
During his first year, 58.3% more teenagers were killed by police compared to 2022, according to a survey by the Sou da Paz Institute for local media outlet UOL.
From January to November 2024, police in San Paulo killed 702 people, a 73% increase compared to the same period in 2023, according to the Special Action Group for Public Security and External Control of Police Activity.
São Paulo's Public Security Secretary, Guilherme Derrite, described the recent cases of police violence registered in the capital of São Paulo as “very serious”.
On the arrest of the officer, Derrite told CNN Brazil: "This is a clear message that we do not tolerate misconduct. A message to society that this is not the attitude of a police officer, whose main mission is to protect people."
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