Rio Cops Bust A Move!

[MA-Caver]

3000 Cops (and soldiers) moved in and occupied one of the largest shanty towns in the Americas. A place where the poor build their homes and found drug-dealers lurking in every corner (so to speak)... Rio De Janeiro cops gathered in force and moved in, heavily armed and meaning business.
Read on:

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — More than 3,000 police and soldiers backed by armored personnel carriers raced into Brazil's biggest slum before dawn Sunday, quickly gaining control of a shantytown ruled for decades by a heavily armed drug gang.

The takeover of the Rocinha neighborhood was the most ambitious operation yet in an effort to increase security before Rio hosts the final matches of the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympics. Officials are counting on those events to signal Brazil's arrival as a global economic, political and cultural power.
The head of state security and chief architect of Rio's shantytown pacification program, Jose Mariano Beltrame, called the operation a major success and a big step toward breaking drug traffickers' hold on key parts of Rio.
"We have taken over areas that for 30 or 40 years were in the hands of ... a parallel power," he said. "This is a very large area. It's one of the biggest shantytowns in the Americas if not the world. We're returning dignity and territory to people."

http://news.yahoo.com/3-000-brazilian-police-seize-rios-biggest-slum-222753962.html

This is one way to fight the Drug War. On it's own turf! Way to go Rio Cops.

 

[JohnEdward]

The news report said the city is trying to clean up because of the future World games and Olympics -I think. In this large raid unlike others, no shoots where fired - good thing. If they are successful in keeping these shanty towns relatively crime free, it is a testament the you can control drug cartels. Good for them!

 

[Steve]

The news report said the city is trying to clean up because of the future World games and Olympics -I think. In this large raid unlike others, no shoots where fired - good thing. If they are successful in keeping these shanty towns relatively crime free, it is a testament the you can control drug cartels. Good for them!

This is pretty typical of the way Rio does things. Do a quick search for street children (or favelas) and Rio. They have had a problem with this for decades and have in the past tried everything from rounding them up to just killing them off like vermin. It's pretty bad down there, and tends to run in cycles. Picture thousands of homeless kids often addicted to cocaine and running in gangs, periodically gunned down by the police.

I'm not surprised by the strong arm tactics, but I'm pretty sure it won't work for long. Crime in Rio is notoriously bad, and they can clean it up for a few months with enough money, it's not sustainable.