29 June 2021
Drugs & Race
Bolsonaro poses with the symbol of the Special Police Operations Battalion (BOPE in the Portuguese acronym) of the Military Police of the State of Rio de Janeiro in August 2020. It might be one of those strange coincidences that happen in Brazil, but the BOPE symbol bears a gruesome resemblance to the emblem of the paramilitary death squad Scuderie Detetive Le Cocq, formed in 1965 in Rio de Janeiro. BOPE was established in 1978. Also coincidentally, one of the paramilitaries who assassinated councilwoman Marielle Franco, former BOPE officer Ronnie Lessa, was officialy registered in Scuderie Detetive Le Cocq ranks. Lessa and Bolsonaro lived in the same condominium in Rio de Janeiro, and his daughter dated one of the president’s sons. Source: Palácio do Planalto/Author: Marcos Correa.
28 June 2021
Photograph of Rio de Janeiro via Wikimedia Commons/Creative Commons 2.0
19 May 2021
Protests outside the White House following the death of George Floyd. Photo by Geoff Livingston, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
12 May 2021
The authors of a new government report claim that the debate on legalisation needs to be neutral. From a semiotic point of view, though, a picture of a person covering their face in signal of distress while rejecting a bag containing what seems to be cocaine powder in a primer with arguments against the legalisation of cannabis does not look neutral. Source: Ministry of Citizenship.
28 April 2021
Heavily-armed policemen conducting an operation in the Favela da Rocinha, Rio de Janeiro, in 2017. Source: Wikimedia Commons; author: Fernando Frasão/Agência Brasil.
22 February 2021
26 November 2020
London Metropolitan Police. Source: Wikimedia
5 November 2020
Source: Flikr
18 August 2020
Photograph of Baltimore police by GoBlue85 via Wikimedia Commons/Creative Commons
30 July 2020