License-To-Kill Policing to Get a Trial Run in Rio de Janeiro | Hacker News Reader

License-To-Kill Policing to Get a Trial Run in Rio de Janeiro

bloombergquint.com

Lol this is nothing new in Brazil. Police have been killing homeless and criminals since forever. Doesn't work. Its a society of desperation, poverty and life is cheap.

So in other words Death squads - that level of escalation certainly won't end well at all for anyone quarter-decent. It will certainly lead to a self fulfilling prophecy - everyone with a rifle will be out to kill them, a rich opportunity for organized crime to go plata o pluma, and provoke counterattacks - including on softer targets like families.

>>and provoke counterattacks - including on softer targets like families.

Snipers are protected, no one knows their identity, they kill from 800m. Will they target Ministers as retaliation? Maybe the top gang leaders have that ability but the rest will go as cannon fodder.

Essentially Brazil made gun possession a capital punishment and two people from 800m away, judge, jury and executioner.

Paradoxically/ironically, the new president is also preparing to liberalize gun laws (which are currently very restrictive, also a fairly recent change) so that everyone can own guns [1].

[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/01/world/americas/brazil-gun...

Unfortunately history shows that angry humans don't generally care that much about accuracy with their revenge as opposed to the first soft target.

From the scapegoating of millers by peasants partially because complaining about the ones actually taking advantage of them (clergy and nobility) would get you burnt at the stake or decapitated respectively (not to mention being disliked by both of the previous two for not fitting into the 'natural social order' of the castes).

The Bath School Disaster attack was a farmer who killed his family and blew up a school he blamed for causing his farm to face repossession - when the dynamite he used in the attack alone could have been sold to provide for the payment. The schoolchildren had no part in his misfortune - even given inability to take responsibility or think ahead people actually involved with tax policy would make far more sense.

Kent State had radicalized some into planning to bomb a ROTC dance in retaliation but they blew up their own loft building the bombs - the sad thing was that the planned plot actually still is /precise/ in terms of terrorists out for revenge.

Common actual stations just make things ten times worse - Vietnam Veterans got tarred as baby killers over My Lai. It is a phenomenon I have noticed, a twisted form of reputational 'karma' that injustice begets injustice - not always but often. By refusing to make an appropriate example of egregious murderers they left the entire force tarnished in reputation. Mere Vietnamese propaganda or dirty guerilla tricks didn't burn in the reputation like the incident.

This phenomenon isn't always right or wrong in itself (or possibly a matter for debate) but regardless is the consequences of past actions. A toddler sticking a fork into an electrical outlet and an assassin pricking themselves with a poisoned weapon both would die as a result of their actions but the justice, morality, and fault of the situations are antonyms.

I’m surprised there is not more news coverage about this in the US. This seems like a dream example to promote on both sides of us politics.

Seems like there will be no reason for the bad guys not to shoot at law enforcement anymore.

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