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Brazil Suffers Its Own Scourge of Police Brutality

By César Muñoz Acebes

Police killings of black men have added to suffering and anger in the middle of a pandemic.

Close to 2 million residents of the Rio de Janeiro’s impoverished favelas are struggling to cope with two lethal threats The first, COVID-19, affects us all but is a heightened risk for those who live on cramped streets where social distancing is hard and in homes without decent ventilation, sanitation and access to potable water Most favela residents rely on informal  jobs and cannot work from home About 300 residents have died of coronavirus The other threat is entirely man-made In the first four months of 2020, Rio police, by their own count, killed 606 people In April, as isolation...

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