From Disarmament to Rearmament: Elements for a Sociology of Critique of the Pacification Police Unit Program

Abstract

Inspired by the reflections on the concept of critique proposed by Luc Boltanski and Eve Chiapello, this article presents some elements for a sociology of critique of the Pacification Police Unit (Unidade de Polícia Pacificadora - UPPs) program. It offers a brief history of the project, typified in phases. We conduct a mapping and a temporal analysis of critiques made about the UPPs throughout the entire period of their existence from 2008 until today. This analysis is based on ethnographic research and interviews conducted by the authors between 2009 and 2015 in the first two "pacified" favelas in the city of Rio de Janeiro (Santa Marta and the Cidade de Deus), and on the analysis of news reports from the major and alternative media and of social networks.

Language as Hope

“…and reform[ing] the justice system" (p. 209). In Rio de Janeiro, the Pacifying Police Units (UPPs), a proposal that at first seemed to resemble community policing, initiated in 2008 (Menezes, 2015;Menezes & Corrêa, 2018). Before pacificação, or pacification, most favelas did not have permanent policing, and police raids conducted in order to confront the drug trade tended to victimize many people.…”

“…The public aim of pacification was to promote permanent policing in favelas and to remove weapons from the retail drug trade. New police officers were hired, with the alleged expectation that policing would be moved away from authoritarian practices and toward a model of "proximity policing" (Muniz & Melo, 2015;Menezes & Corrêa, 2018;Rodrigues & Siqueira, 2012). Although community policing was at least laterally reflective of the initial design of this experiment, the connections of pacification to real estate, media, military, and government investments prior to the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games (Gaffney, 2015;Grassiani & Muller, 2019;Silva, Facina, & Lopes, 2015), in addition to the historical anti-Black police violence that we described above, soon signaled the distance between this policing model and the citizen security that progressives in Latin America aspired for (Batista, 2011;Facina & Palombini, 2017).…”

“…Tatiana Lima (2021) reports that "the vulnerability of Rio de Janeiro human rights defenders, in their confrontation to urban and institutional violence, has reached a peak, especially after the assassination of councilwoman Marielle Franco" (n.p.). This background of tension has been studied by Palloma Menezes and colleagues (Menezes, 2015;Menezes & Corrêa, 2018;Machado da Silva & Menezes, 2019). Based on fieldwork in two "pacified" favelas -Santa Marta and Cidade de Deus -Menezes explains that the dynamics of speech and silence during "pacification" was largely shaped by "investigation strategies" (Dewey, 1938, cited in Menezes, 2015.…”

From ‘pacification’ to ‘licence-to-kill’: Favela residents’ experience with the UPP from 2011-2018

“…Surveys from 2010 to 2013 showed that there was general support for the UPP (de Oliveira, 2014, p. 175). A study by Menezes and Corrêa (2017) lists some elements of the success of the UPP. However, residents pointed out numerous problems with the UPP, being aware that they were deprived of rights (de Oliveira, 2014, p. Since 2014, the situation was marked by more violent conflicts between traffickers and the military police (Hilderbrand, 2014).…”