The Role of the Police in the Favela

Besides my superficial understanding of life in a slum or ghetto, City of God was my first real interaction with the concept of the favela. I watched the movie last year and remembered feeling horrified that it was based on a true story, the corruption of the police, and that human life was so undervalued. After learning about favelas in class and experiencing the cultural view of favelas, I rewatched the movie and picked up on so many things I had previously missed. For example, the code names that the gangsters used meant very little to me until we watched a brief documentary in class that used the exact same ones. I noticed the kites and fireworks and realized the deeper meaning they held to the slum. Furthermore, I temporarily forgot even where the movie took place, as the setting of the favela is hardly what comes to mind when you think of Rio de Janeiro. Yet, Erika Robb Larkins reports that Rio de Janeiro holds over 1000 favelas, displaying just how significant favelas are to the city. 

Larkins' article about El Dorado, a Rio de Janeiro favela in which she conducted her research, highlights the perceived violence between narco-traffickers and the police, as well as the corruption within the police. Surprisingly, the author points out that "absence of armed confrontations" between the two during police invasions, due to the tip off by informants within the police that give the gangsters time to hide (p 554). This phenomenon was present within the City of God, such as when none of the neighbors would denounce/give up the names of the three boys within the "Tender Trio" and they were able to hide for months. She even goes as far to call them a "staged affair," that is intensified by the media and describes it as "performance violence" (p 555). The media spectacle is referred to as a "hyper-favela," a concept which is also covered in City of God. In the movie, there is talk about how much the media loves pictures displaying the violence within the favela and how the police corruption is never covered. 

Despite the frequent police raids that come up either empty handed or with peanuts compared to the actual operation, the favela residents see right through to the corruption and to the instability of the state. Larkins refers to this as the "de-legitimization" of the state. Instead of increasing state control of the favelas, the authority of the state is undermined by their own role and this contributes to perception that the police do not protect the residents. This theme is also seen within the movie, where residents often steer clear of the police and the wrong person is often persecuted or murdered by the police. Furthermore, everybody knows that the gangsters pay off the police and that the head boss will never be arrested. However, the authorities prevent the media from portraying this image in the favela. It’s quite obvious that the movie was based off of a true story.