Deputy says that killed by the PM in Guarujá ‘deserved to die’

Deputy Delegate Ione Barbosa (Avante-MG) said this Tuesday, 1st, that those killed by the São Paulo Military Police in Guarujá, on the coast of São Paulo, “deserved to die”. In a speech in the Chamber, she still defended the execution of people as a tool to find out who was responsible for the murder of a police officer.

“And, for sure, these ten deaths, sorry here, are people who deserved it, because the police certainly don’t kill for nothing. Kill out of necessity. To save the good citizen or to save one’s own life. If it is necessary to kill ten people to reach one person who killed a police officer, so be it”, he said, during a meeting of the Commission for Public Security and Combating Organized Crime.

The government of São Paulo has not yet clarified the circumstances that resulted in the death of at least ten people by state troops during an operation triggered after the murder of soldier Patrick Bastos Reis, last Thursday, the 27th. schizophrenia and a street vendor found with cigarette burns and a cut arm.

The official death toll from police actions since the soldier’s murder reached 14 on Tuesday. The Military Police Ombudsman is studying other cases and the total could reach 19.

Although the deputy, who comes from a police career, treated killing people as legitimate to investigate the authorship of a police murder, Brazilian legislation does not provide for this practice. Residents of Guarujá have reported cases of torture and police abuse during operations. These measures are also not supported by law and are considered criminal.

The deputy maintained in her statement that the police do not kill without reason. However, there are numerous cases of summary executions under investigation and also already proven. Experts point out that the serial deaths in Guarujá follow the logic of “operation revenge”. Cases of police violence are the basis of debates about the implementation of cameras in police uniforms.

Data released in July by the Brazilian Public Security Forum showed that Brazilian police killed 6,430 people in 2022. In the previous year, there were 6,524 deaths recorded. In absolute numbers, Bahia and Rio de Janeiro had more cases last year: 1,464 and 1,330, respectively.

With the repercussions of the crisis in Guarujá, the governor of São Paulo Tarcísio de Freitas (Republicans), stated that “there were no excesses”. He classified the performance of the police as “professional” and promised to continue the operation.

The Minister of Justice, Flávio Dino, in turn, said “there was an immediate reaction that does not seem, at this moment, to be proportional in relation to the crime that was committed”.

Who is the deputy?

Delegate Ione Barbosa was the most voted federal deputy in Juiz de Fora. In the Zona da Mata region of Minas Gerais, she obtained 44,084 votes. In all, she was elected by 52,630 people. She supported the re-election of former President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) in 2022.

In 2020, Ione Barbosa competed for the Prefecture of Juiz de Fora, but ended up in third place. As a delegate, she worked at the Specialized Police Station for Women and at the 4th Civil Police Station.

In addition to having a degree in law, she holds a master’s degree in social sciences from the Federal University of Juiz de Fora (UFJF), with research on violence against women.