The Paraisópolis Massacre turns five years old this Sunday (1st), without defining a penalty for those responsible for the deaths of nine young people and as just one of the cases of police violence that still continues. This is the assessment of the families of the victims, who carried out an event to mark the date, in front of one of the access gates to Palácio dos Bandeirantes, the seat of the government of São Paulo.
The cycle was also remembered with the launch of a website (https://os9queperdemos.com.br/), which contains the case timeline and hosts a reporting center. On the website, there are also reports that detail the episode and address the issue of police violence and the criminalization of funk.
The protesters at today’s event walked along Rua Nabih Assad Abdalla, in Morumbi, with banners calling for peace and containing other messages, such as “The Law exists so that justice can be done” and “It was not help”, which refutes the version from the Military Police (PM) that the agents were called and arrived at the DZ7 Ball, in 2019, to provide assistance and not to act as a repressive force. Corporation agents blocked the two gates of the palace this Sunday.
In her speech, Cristina Quirino, mother of Denys Henrique Quirino, highlighted that she and the other family members of the young people killed by the police demand not only the punishment of the police, but also of those who give the orders and guide them in relation to what is acceptable or not regarding the conduct they adopt on duty.
“It’s not just whoever pulls the trigger, who throws the tear gas, who executes it. Whoever is in charge must also be punished”, he declared, into the microphone, after pauses amidst the crying.
“That’s why we have mothers here [de vítimas] of cases other than that of Paraisópolis”, he noted. “The governors are not punished.”
Denys Henrique Quirino was one of the nine victims who died during an operation carried out during the DZ7 funk dance, in the Paraisópolis favela, in 2019. In total, 12 police officers were accused of committing the murders and a 13th is responsible for exposing people the dance was at risk, as he would have released explosives into the crowd that was gathering and, in doing so, worsened the situation.
The first evidentiary hearing, at the São Paulo Court of Justice, only took place at the end of July 2023. There were 24 prosecution witnesses on the list of scheduled testimonies, out of a total of 52 witnesses listed (https://agenciabrasil.ebc. com.br/direitos-humanos/noticia/2023-07/chacina-de-paraisopolis-parentes-e-movimentos-sociais-fazem-protesto).
By mid-December 2023, the audiences were resumed. One of the main perspectives presented to the court was that of biomedical scientist from the Center for Forensic Anthropology and Archeology (Caaf) at the Federal University of São Paulo (Unifesp) Ana Paula de Souza Velloso, who demonstrated, through scientific evidence, that the victims died from mechanical asphyxiation. , not because trampling .
The São Paulo Public Defender’s Office even detailed the case in a 187-page report, highlighting the analysis of images captured by cameras and conversations that reveal how the police officers acted at the time. The agency stated that there is solid evidence that the agents cornered young people in an alley in the community and that the victims died from asphyxiation, not from being trampled on, as they claim.
João Doria was the state governor at the time of the massacre. He said he would not back down from the commands given to public security forces, even after numerous reports of abuse committed by agents (https://agenciabrasil.ebc.com.br/geral/noticia/2019-12/governador-diz-que -public-security-program-will-not-change).
