Claudia Silva Ferreira, Victim of Police Brutality in Brazil

Family and friends at Ferreira's funeral.

This past semester I have learned about the issues of racism and police brutality in Brazil. Today we talked about a woman that was brutally killed by military police. So, what did this woman do to get killed? Nothing. The fact that she was black was reason enough for the police to kill her. For a country that claims that they are NOT racist, this incident and the recent violence stirred up by the World Cup definitely contradicts that claim.  

March 16, 2014:
During a military police operation Claudia Silva Ferreira was shot in the neck and back in the Morro da Congonha slum in the north of Rio de Janiero. Ferreira did not die at that moment but what police did next would lead to her slow painful death.

Once the police ended their gunfight with alleged drug traffickers they threw Ferreira in the trunk of their car to take her to the hospital. Most would think to put her in the backseat, but they obviously were to careless to do so. They did not even have the heart to close the trunk.

Friends and neighbors of Ferreira attempted to stop the police from taking her away but they fired warning shots to get them to back away. Once the crowd dispersed they took off with the trunk open.

On Intendente Magalhaes highway her body rolled out of the trunk and hung on by a piece of clothing. Her body was dragged 250 meters and although drivers an pedestrians tried to tell the police they did not seem to care.   

The police officers who were responsible for Ferreira's death were reported to be Sub-lieutenant Adir Serrano Machado, Sub-lieutenant Rodney Miguel Archanjo, and Sergeant Alex Sandro da Silva Alves. The next day they were arrested.


March 20, 2014
The police officers that were placed under arrest were arrested due to claims that Ferreria may have been dead before being thrown in the trunk. According to prosecutor Paulo Roberto Cunha, ”If she [Silva Ferreira] presented vital signs, there would be the crime of bodily harm. But, if she was dead [when placed in the trunk], they did not commit any crime.”

According to Journalist Monica Waldvogel reported that Sub-lieutenant Adir Serrano has been involved in the death of about 63 people. Sub-lieutenant Rodney Archango is responsible for six deaths.

Thais Lima, Ferreira's daughter, said that the police officers laughed while putting her mom's body in the car.


Writer Christen Smith posted an article on The Feminist Wire about Ferreira's death describing the incident as follows:

"As black women, ours is often the flesh that the state uses to fertilize the nation; consolidate its power. On the pretenses of public safety, they invade our neighborhoods and our homes, pull us out and kill us, spilling our blood into the pavement. I am tired of them dragging us limp and lifeless through the streets on alleged missions to save us. They grind us into the road oblivious to our life's worth and impervious to the unspeakable pain that they inflict on our children, our partners, and the loved ones we leave behind. Violence against black women is a global, communal, generational violence. As a black woman I am painfully aware that anywhere and almost everywhere I go I am a target for white supremacist heteropatriarchy, and it is often the state that exacts this violence. Our bodies are always marked as violable. Yet oftentimes in our discussions of state violence, we neglect to account for the fact that black women are always the intended targets of anti-black state terror, even when the ones who are killed are black men."

Smith also claims that she believes that the class race, and gender factored into the killing of Ferreira. To read the rest of Smith's article go to: http://powderroom.jezebel.com/claudia-ferreira-and-the-apathy-towards-black-and-brown-1571876830/1571879699/+nappyheadflo

 

Do I believe that women with brown and black skin are still discriminated against not just in Brazil but all across the world? Yes. I myself have experienced the feeling of being looked down upon for the color of my skin, and I live in California. I am also expected to like certain things or do certain things that women are "supposed" to. But it could be a lot worse. At least I can shrug off what others think of me, and do not have to worry about being beaten down for being who I am.

 

If you think you are being judged harshly for the color of your skin or gender in and live in a first world country, try to imagine what it is like for women of colored skin in third world countries. Many of us take for granted how far our country has come.