Phone thieves in Brazil have an easy target: Gig workers
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This is different from what happens in Brazil. That situation looks like it's primarily driven by sadism, whereas in Brazil it tends to be primarily financially motivated, though sometimes sadism is a secondary objective.
Whether they are being attacked for their phone, for their bike, because racism, whatever. It doesn't change that they are an easy target. This is a gig worker problem, not a Brazil problem.
The roots behind that include poverty, stagnant residential areas with few prospects, and of course lots of other things like more general cultural deficiencies in the national psyche. I'm sure there are good social historians who can describe this far better than I can.
The GP's description of the behaviour as sadistic is pretty on point, I think, and makes it more despicable and worrying than when the cause is financial.