ABSTRACT
This chapter examines public security, violence, racial discrimination, and human rights. Salvador, capital of Bahia, expresses a kind of discrimination based on physical appearance and skin colour. The Brazilian constitution, laws, and press proclaim their revulsion at all and every attack on human dignity. The victims' families have explained the case in this way: "It was racial discrimination because he was certainly Black and in Bahia the police think every Black man is a thief." In interviews some admit there is a type of training that makes the soldiers consider all black people as suspects, and principally black men. In select instances even the police themselves, or their families, become the target of prejudice and police violence. The police are organized in two independent categories: The Military Police, responsible for patrolling, for notorious criminals, and for stopping and detaining people for investigation by the Civil Police, whose function is to conduct investigations.
