Brazilian Police

Recently, I blogged about seeing a thief sprint through traffic and right past a cop, within arm's reach, who did nothing to stop the guy, but only watched (here).

Then last week, as I was walking to school, I saw a little scuffle taking place in the middle of a plaza. There was an old, homeless-looking guy and then another old man with a younger girl, maybe in her early 20's. The man and girl were screaming at the homeless man, who was yelling back, and the two of them kept hitting him. There are always cops posted in that plaza and there were a couple near where I was walking. If I were one of them, I imagine that I'd jog over, tell everyone to calm down and please explain what was going on. (Side note: I'm very grateful that I am, in fact, not one of those cops.) This isn't what the cops did though.

One of them started sauntering over, taking a few of minutes to get there when it could've been 20 seconds, all while those three people keep fighting. He had his hand on his belt, apparently ready for action. He strolled up to the group. Did he ask what was going on? No. Did he tell anyone to calm down or step back? No. Did he immediately pepper spray the girl in the face without any warning? Why, yes. Yes, he did. And then he pepper sprayed the guy that was with her, too. Last but not least, he kicked a rock at them. The man and girl started to leave and I had to get to class so I did, as well.

I don't know who was at fault, why they were all fighting or what else could have been done about it. For all I know, the cop knows who the three of them are and they've had similar confrontations before. Or maybe he somehow did hear what was going on as he walked over and correctly judged who was at fault before he got there. It's even likely that the guy and the girl were bothering this poor homeless man.

I honestly don't know what was really going on but I think what I saw was strange and I wouldn't use it as a problem-solving model for the kids I teach. I don't know any cops here and I assume that there are plenty of fair, well-intentioned people working in the police force. Still, seeing these two scenes in the past few weeks hasn't inspired a whole lot of confidence.