08/01/2023 – 21:43
Governor Tarcísio de Freitas (Republicans) said this Tuesday, 1st, that the conduct of police officers working in Operation Shield, in Baixada Santista, is being investigated and that those responsible for possible excesses or failures will be punished. Fourteen people have been killed since Friday, the 28th, after a soldier from the Military Police was murdered in Guarujá.
“Everything is being investigated. All conduct will be investigated. If there is excess, if there are failures, we will punish those responsible”, said the governor.
The Police Ombudsman received reports of alleged torture and executions by security agents and asked for an investigation into the cases. For Tarcísio, the operation is being conducted with “a lot of responsibility”. Police action in Baixada Santista should continue until the end of the month.
“The General Commander of Police entered the community along with the police precisely to curb excesses, to enforce the law, to conduct the operation. We are doing this very responsibly, ”he said. “There is no such thing as fighting crime without side effects.”
Still according to the governor, the images from the cameras of the police uniforms will be attached to the investigation process that is being carried out by the State Department of Criminal Investigations (Deic) and by the PM to understand if there was abuse by the police.
Regarding action in the community and the entry of police into homes, Tarcísio said that “policing is ostensible and only comes into conflict as a last resort. He only fires in self-defence.” The residences that the police enter would be chosen based on investigations that indicate that there are drug operations in the area or criminals reside there.
The Public Ministry of the State of São Paulo announced on Monday, the 31st, that it will investigate the performance of the Military Police during Operation Shield. The Attorney General of Justice, Mario Sarrubbo, appointed three prosecutors from Baixada Santista to, alongside the Public Security Special Action Group (Gaesp), set up procedures to analyze the actions of the Military Police in the episode.
Operation Shield
Police operations with armed confrontation intensified in Baixada Santista after two soldiers from Rota were attacked while on patrol in a community in Guarujá on Thursday, 27. One of them, soldier Patrick Bastos Reis, 30, who was part of Rondas Ostensivas Tobias de Aguiar (Rota), did not resist.
Two more military police officers were shot in Santos while on preventive patrol this Tuesday, according to the Public Security Secretariat of São Paulo (SSP). About these shots fired against PMs in Santos, the governor stated that criminals change location to disperse police action. For Tarcísio, this is an indication that the police action is “disturbing” and “harming the big business” that is drug trafficking.
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