On November 29th, the group participating in the course “Human rights, gender, urban violence and communities”, carried out by Promundo, concluded the project's activities at the Rafael Braga – Claudia Silva Ferreira Youth Festival, which took place at Knowledge Square , in Nova Brasília, a group of favelas in Alemão. Course participants held a poster workshop and made a clothesline with messages to combat urban violence and positively reframe youth living in favelas.
The event is part of a project by the Rio de Janeiro Youth Forum called: Militarization of Favelas: impact on the lives of young Negr@s in partnership with other organizations, such as Fórum Social de Manguinhos, FASE, IBASE, Fórum contra o Genocide of the Black People, Rede Fale, Coletivo Papo Reto, Coletivo Feminista Luiza Mahin, among others. Its objective is to take discussion about the militarization of favelas and the impact of this on the lives, mainly of young black people living in favelas, to various urban spaces on the periphery. At these events, workshops are held on various topics, such as institutional racism, artistic and cultural presentations, exhibitions, turban workshops, funk circles, construction of social cartography, among other activities.
On this day, demonstrations were also organized to pressure the approval of PL 4471, which aims to end the Auto de Resistência (“resistance to arrest followed by death”), a name used by the Military Police to justify the murder of young, poor and black people in context of dubious police action. The bill, if approved, requires that all deaths carried out by police forces in the country be investigated and that the officer who fired the shot calls for medical assistance for the victim, instead of trying to provide help himself.
Extermination of Black Youth
The name of the event “Festival das Juventudes Rafael Braga – Claudia Silva Ferreira” is a reference to two recent cases of institutional racism that directly affect black youth.
Rafael Braga is a homeless young man who was arrested during the protests in June last year. He was carrying a pine sol plastic bottle that was considered explosive material, for this reason Rafael was prosecuted and sentenced to five years in prison. Despite all the political and social mobilization surrounding the case and the fact that the forensic examination found that the material was not dangerous, Rafael continues to serve his sentence.
Claudia Silva is a black woman living in Madureira who was arbitrarily executed by Military Police, who when they realized she was a woman, threw her body inside the police vehicle, undoing the homicide scene, which is illegal. Along the way, the car opened and Claudia's body was dragged along the street, arriving at the hospital disfigured.
The images of Claudia's body being dragged by the police car shocked public opinion, however one must question how many “Claudias” are not killed and raped every day in the favelas and outskirts by the police forces that are supposed to protect lives and not eliminate them.
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