Mainstream Media 'Discovers' Public Backs Brutality, Again
The Financial Times headline shouts, 'Crime-weary Rio residents back Brazil’s bloodiest ever police raid,' celebrating (or at least normalizing) the killing of 'dozens of suspected drug traffickers.' This narrative is as old as it is chilling: public fear leveraged to justify state violence. Conveniently, the FT doesn't delve into Brazil's long, brutal history of military police operations in
favelas, which routinely result in extrajudicial killings and disproportionately target Black and impoverished citizens. This isn't a new strategy; it's a re-run of a failed, deadly policy, consistently condemned by human rights groups. (Perhaps 'crime-weary' also applies to weary reporters covering systemic issues.) One might wonder if 'bloody' police raids ever actually solve systemic poverty or
drug trafficking, or if they simply perpetuate a cycle of violence, creating more 'suspects' than solutions. Mainstream media often frames these events as necessary evils, echoing official lines, rather than questioning the root causes of crime or the effectiveness of state-sanctioned slaughter. 'Public support' for such brutality often stems from desperation, not from an informed endorsement of
state terror tactics. How many 'bloodiest ever' raids does it take to realize this isn't working?