You turn to us for voices you won't hear anywhere else.

Sign up for Democracy Now!'s Daily Digest to get our latest headlines and stories delivered to your inbox every day.

Protests Erupt After Video Shows Brazilian Police Gassing Man to Death

HeadlineJun 02, 2022

In Brazil, protesters are demanding justice for Genivaldo de Jesus Santos, a Black man diagnosed with schizophrenia who was killed by federal police in the city of Umbaúba on May 25. Video of the incident shows a pair of officers trapping Santos inside a vehicle after releasing a tear gas canister inside. A medical examiner later determined Santos died of asphyxia. On Wednesday, hundreds of protesters marched through São Paulo demanding justice.

Protester: “Genivaldo was tortured for a crime he did not commit, a Black man with mental health issues. The family begged for his life, but they were not heard.”

Many Brazilians are comparing the death of Genivaldo de Jesus Santos to the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, which took place exactly two years prior. Santos’s killing came just days after police killed at least 25 people during a raid on a favela in Rio de Janeiro.

The original content of this program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Please attribute legal copies of this work to democracynow.org. Some of the work(s) that this program incorporates, however, may be separately licensed. For further information or additional permissions, contact us.

Non-commercial news needs your support

We rely on contributions from our viewers and listeners to do our work.
Please do your part today.
Make a donation
Top