How the abandonment of the State favors support for the lethal operation – 11/01/2025 – Daily Life

The population’s feeling of abandonment in relation to the State, favored in the vulnerable contexts of the territories where the most violent police operations in Rio de Janeiro take place, may explain the support from part of society for the actions last Tuesday (28) in the Alemão and Penha complexes, when 121 people were killed, including four police officers.

According to a Datafolha survey, 57% of Rio de Janeiro residents agree with governor Cláudio Castro’s (PL) assessment that Operation Containment was a “success”. Another 39% totally or partially disagree with this assessment.

At the same time, 77% of Rio’s population agrees that “investigating crimes and arresting criminals is more important than killing criminals.”

For sociologists, political scientists, economists and public security specialists —from the favela, the PM or the asphalt—, heard by the Sheetthe majority support for the most lethal operation in the country’s history can be related to the State’s historical negligence in these territories. When it comes to public security, the State tends to be present in specific cases, generally through armed operations of this type.

“The resident’s feeling of impotence about how to deal with territorial control by illicit networks has to do with a historical perspective of the State’s abandonment of impoverished people. The State is not present in these neighborhoods to exercise territorial sovereignty as it happens in other parts of the city”, says public security specialist, Eliana Sousa Silva, who grew up in the Maré favela complex, in Rio, where she created the NGO Redes da Maré.

“Myopia in relation to the seriousness of what is happening does not occur because people are defending a specific project, but because they want to quickly resolve a problem that affects everyone, but which cannot be resolved quickly”, he ponders.

The fact that truly confronting the problem of territorial control is not a political priority creates a feeling of frustration and abandonment among the population, assesses Rodrigo dos Reis Soares, professor at the Lemann Foundation Chair at Insper and author of works on the economic perspective of crime and violence.

“Violence between groups and abuse by those who control certain territories persist unabated. In this sense, I believe that some demonstration of confrontation, however misguided it may be, generates a positive reaction among the population”, he maintains.

“That’s why this support doesn’t surprise me. In my opinion, this indicates how dramatic the problem is, particularly from the point of view of the affected population, but also more generally in the eyes of the Brazilian population.”

For Sérgio Adorno, professor of Sociology at the Faculty of Philosophy, Literature and Human Sciences at the University of São Paulo, the research results reflect “the heat of events” and not necessarily a more detailed reflection on the subject.

“What is new is an explicit demand for a new legitimacy of violence when previously it was disqualified as an instrument of power and guarantee of order”, says he, who is scientific coordinator of the Center for Violence Studies at USP. “It’s as if violence is a tragic fate that needs to happen so that other people can live. There is a demand for order, but not for the rule of law.”

Adorno points to what he considers to be a paradox. “There is a population trapped between the police and organized crime, which is also authoritarian and arbitrary. They want to be freed and, if there is no other way out than armed power, let the police come to defend them.”

Adilson Paes de Souza, reserve colonel of the São Paulo Military Police and doctor in social psychology, agrees with the assessment. “The population feels abandoned and is accepting any measure to bring peace, even if momentary”, he says. “That’s why, from time to time, these operations are carried out to say that the State exists, that it maintains sovereignty in certain territories, because it is known that the population is desperate and certain politicians depend on this despair to get elected.”

When this abandonment of the State generates disbelief in civil institutions and also in the idea of ​​a Democratic Rule of Law, it tends to increase trust in the police, according to a study carried out at the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG).

“The high support for the operation arises from the combination of social fear and disbelief in civil institutions, which leads part of the population to accept violent actions as if they were necessary. Trust in the police becomes emotional and instrumental, focused on the promise of immediate security, and not legality”, explains lawyer and political scientist Diego Cortezzi, co-author of the study, which investigated how political attitudes, of greater or lesser support for different dimensions of democracy, affect trust in the police.

Carried out using data from several Latin American countries, including Brazil, the study demonstrated that, in contexts of chronic violence and fear, citizens tend to trust repressive forces and support coercive solutions because they believe they are more efficient.

For sociologist Claudio Beato, coordinator of the Center for Studies in Crime and Public Security at UFMG, this is also due to the fact that this type of discourse in support of violence was prevalent during the four years of Jair Bolsonaro’s government, which would give traction to this idea. “They sold the idea that killing hundreds of people would be a project. It’s not.”

He cites research carried out in Belo Horizonte with people who lived in favelas. “Their biggest complaint was that the police were brutal and didn’t distinguish between workers and criminals. But when they asked what people wanted most, the answer was: police.”

Soares states that a definitive solution to the problem of territorial control and the absence of the State will occur when “the public security forces enter and permanently stay in these affected territories”.

“The idea that this solution will be achieved through operations that treat the affected territories almost as areas outside the national territory, where public security forces enter and leave, is entirely wrong”, he concludes.