Yipes (Rough Justice) - São Paulo

Some of you may remember a post I wrote about the death cocktail that was served to two killers of a 5-year-old child. If not, here it is. At that point in the story, two of the other accomplices (including the actual "author" of the shot) were fugitive, having been allowed out of prison on Mother's Day, a common "amnesty" day when you get to leave for the day as long as you promise to come back. You all know my feelings on that wackiness.

Two bodies found in July have now been identified as these two fugitive accomplices. And a letter has turned up that seems to indicate that the PCC (the huge criminal gang active in São Paulo) ordered the deaths of all four. Why? The PCC does not allow its members to kill kids. And if you happen to be along for the ride when one of the group kills one, well, it's bye-bye-bye.

The family of the boy left Brazil forever shortly after the crime, and of course this rough justice will be of little comfort to them. Or anyone else left where they used to live; the Bolivian family was assaulted four times in the six months they lived in São Mateus, a neighborhood here in São Paulo.

Again, a story it is hard to be happy about. And one now closed in this blog at least.

Full story here: http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/cotidiano/2013/09/1341343-faccao-e-suspeita-de-mandar-matar-assassinos-de-menino-boliviano.shtml

Hallmark holidays and murder - São Paulo

Justice for Brayan? Maybe.

Here is one of these urban stories which has no redemption. There is no good lesson to be learned from this. You choose whether or not to read on.

On June 28 of this year, a Bolivian immigrant family was held up in their house. When they could not cough up more than $4500 reais (US$2100), the assailants threatened to shoot the 5-year old son, who was apparently screaming and crying. And they ended up doing so; in leaving the house, one of the assailants killed Brayan with a gunshot to the head.

The four assailants were subsequently caught and put into prison (a teenager is also suspected but is in the juvenile prison system). Prison in Brazil is not fun (I'm guessing it's not fun anywhere but fortunately don't know the truth of it). The PCC is the organized prison mafia and runs a pretty tight ship of hierarchy and membership dues, etc. It is pretty hard to leave prison a better man or woman.

What happens in prison, stays in prison. In one of those prison justice moments that send chills up your spine, two of the four suspects were killed by fellow prisoners last week. They were forced to drink a lethal cocktail of cocaine and Viagra, mixed with water and disinfectant. Taken to the prison hospital, they soon died. While it seems somewhat obvious (to me) that this is retaliation for taking the life of a child, there is no final answer.

Drink up!

But, as they say, read on. And you know I can't resist reading on a Folha article. What happened to the other two adult assailants, including the one that is suspected of being the gunman? Let's see...they are "foragido" or fugitive. How did they get out? Did they escape? Not hardly. It turns out that were released for Mother's Day. A Hallmark holiday if ever there was one. Yes, the amnesty of mother's day where all good murderers get to go home and kiss their mothers. Who will want to kiss the murderer of a tiny tot.  I am beginning to believe that amnesty is a way of easing the prison overcrowding--what percentage of these folks actually go back to prison at the end of the day? I don't know. Not sure I want to find out.

True story. Look here.