Emily dos Santos (4) and Rebeca dos Santos (7) where playing outside their homes in Duque de Caxias, in the metropolitan region of Rio de Janeiro, when they were hit in the head and abdomen, respectively, on Friday night, December 4. Both kids, who were cousins, were hit by stray bullets and the family accuses the Military Police of being responsible – the corporation denies. According to data from the Fogo Cruzado app, which monitors shootings in Rio de Janeiro, in 2020 alone some 22 children under 12 were shot, 8 died, most of them living in favelas and poorer communities of the metropolitan region.

The deaths of the girls also caused commotion because of the way their deaths were reported – activists criticized, for example, the coverage of Folha de São Paulo, the country’s leading newspaper, which reserved only a footnote on its cover for the story.

On 19 November, the eve of the Black Conscience Day which commemorates the supposed date of death of the black hero Zumbi dos Palmares (Nov. 20), João Alberto Silveira Freitas, 40, a black man, was beaten and asphyxiated to death by security guards of a Carrefour supermarket in Porto Alegre, southern Brazil.

Full article at Media Diversity Institute’s website. Date of publication: 14/12/2020.