Gang Task Force, Brazilian Style

[Crazed Rabbit]

http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/index....D=2&subID=1270

On the beat with Brazil’s men in black

The 18 British tourists who had just landed in Rio de Janeiro were probably feeling safe and relaxed when a military police vehicle stopped their coach outside the airport at the end of November.

Then the black-clad 'officers' pulled out grenades and machine-guns and robbed them of all their possessions. It was the latest in a series of audacious attacks by Brazil's notorious drug gangs.

The gangs, who control the huge favelas, or slums, had pulled off another imaginative heist days earlier when they stole 90 weapons being used on a film set - a feature-length production about the war between the traffickers and Rio's crack police squad, BOPE.

Elite Troops is based on a book by two ex-military captains who tell the story from the police side and is due to be launched at the Cannes festival next year. Clandestine extermination groups involving police are not new, but BOPE are officially endorsed, highly trained and lethal. They once went on a three-hour rampage in Rio, spraying bullets into bars and killing 30 people.

Co-authors Andre Batista and Rodrigo Pimental, describe their old unit as a killing machine, and show how the squad operates with virtual impunity, carrying out summary executions. But the authors argue their actions are honourable and necessary to combat the gangs and are ruthlessly critical of liberal foreign NGOs. The book is a bestseller.

Describing themselves as the "best urban troop in the world," BOPE number just 400 men. The authors tell of how they would sing their war cry each morning: "Man in black/ What is your mission?/ It is to invade the favela/ And leave bodies on the ground."
FIRST POSTED DECEMBER 28, 2006

Hopefully we can avoid the need for such a group in places like LA, home of the new racial killings.

It'd be interesting to read their book.

Crazed Rabbit

[GoreBag]

That war song is super badass.

[BDC]

That war song is super badass.

But maybe not entirely appropriate for a police unit?

[rory_20_uk]

Police forces enforce the rule of law. Unless such regiems as Nazi Germany are considered, summary executions are incompatible with a free country.

[GoreBag]

But maybe not entirely appropriate for a police unit?

I don't see why not. Their job is to run around, killing certain people more or less indiscriminately. Praising your own violence is a pretty good way to keep morale up.