São Paulo police (courtesy guardian.co.uk)

estado.com.br has some [Google-translated] advice for the 600k foreign visitors journeying to Brazil for The 2014 World Cup. “With the escalating number of thefts and robberies in the state of São Paulo, terrorists and black blocs are less of a concern. The main warning is for armed robbery – robbery followed by death – against those who have no idea how to behave in a city as violent as Sao Paulo. The guidelines are clear: ‘do not react, do not yell or argue.'” And, by the way, hand over your valuables. The Brazilians are working hard to spread the message of passivity to their guests . . .

Embassies and consulates will be instructed to distribute to its citizens before they set foot on Brazilian soil a special guide with safety tips created for big events. The idea was the president of the World Civil Police of São Paulo Cup Management Committee, Mário Leite.

“I’m preparing our police to prevent crime of larceny. Why? Tourists come mainly from Europe and the United States do not see very often this crime type there. Unaccustomed How they will react to the assault,” said the sheriff.

The pamphlets should be published in English, Spanish and French, and Portuguese. “They will know that they should not walk boasting precise objects, be careful walking alone at night and accompanied. Then no use crying over spilled milk,” Leite said. Some of the guidelines of the guide to sound paranoid, as “the route between their destinations, try to observe if someone is following you.”

Obviously, I’m not about to suggest that visitors to Brazil should be able to exercise their natural and civil right to keep and bear arms to defend themselves and their loved ones against murderous thugs in one of the world’s most violent cities. That would be silly.

But I am saying – again, still – that a disarmed populace is a populace plagued by crime. Make no mistake, Brazilians who can’t afford armed security can’t carry. Wikipedia: “extremely severe restrictions were made by the federal government since 2002 making it virtually impossible to obtain a carry permit.”

Never mind. Past history indicates that Brazilian police will practice a little extra-judicial killing ahead of the Cup to reduce the overall population of potential perps (excluding themselves). Yeah, there’s that too.

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65 COMMENTS

    • Just take along the progressive credo: “Crime is what happens to other people.”

  3. How great that you must be unarmed in a city full of slums and martial artists. But at least they are polite enough to set a fee for not choking you to death. I wonder how much the Brazilian government taxes those transactions?

  5. Bend over and take it. Soccer hooligans are looking pretty good. Don’t forget the 2016 Olympics are right around the corner. If the IOC doesn’t move ’em LOL

    • I think IOC members are, at the moment, more interested in making sure that their own kids get the kind of multi-million dollar bank deposits/gifts that the head of the selection committee’s kid received.

      Maybe AFTER they “get theirs” the 2016 host city assignment change would become palatable.

  6. Rio is an interesting place . Anyone in government is corrupt to some point by our standards, which means far more openly corrupt than here. They keep peace by brute force and the fact that the poor mostly can feed themselves by heading into the jungle and gathering fruit and small animals. Yes I have been there but have no real desire to go back. The slums would be in the best real estate areas in this country with great views of the oceans. But my friends in Brazil constantly say that when someone in public office tries to clean something up they are executed. So a armed populace is needed to help protect those who see the light and want to do the right thing in a revolution of sorts. Not going to happen anytime soon.

    • @JFK, Rio is a total shathole. But make no mistake, their corrupt politicians don’t hold a candle to our own version.

      • I take exception to your statement, and the minute I can reach them at the Burisma board of directors meeting in Ukraine, I’ll ask Devon Archer and Hunter Biden to explain to you how you are mischaracterizing U.S. government.

    • A legally armed modern society will NEVER emerge in Brazil, or anywhere else… because the long-term future of the human race is for most people to be slaves to a small elite. At least if we play our cards right (and we’d better START playing them right, starting NOW) America has another 50-100 years of being a place where people can be armed and (relatively) free.
      After that, those of us who value individual liberty might as well hope for a 5-mile-wide asteroid or comet to come along… because as long as technological civilization (with its surveillance capabilities) lasts, most people will be reduced to the status of livestock. If there is ever an armed society again after America loses the Second Amendment, the “arms” will be rocks and sticks (in the hands of neo-cavemen.)

  8. I played enough Max Payne 3 to know Brazil is no place to be without guns, and lots of ’em.

      • Don’t forget a sling for the gun. Always annoyed me how you couldn’t dual wield pistols and carry a rifle with you. I know it is off topic but I found Max Payne 3 to be a total disappointment from a story perspective. Max Payne 1 & 2 complimented each other perfectly, he got over his grief and was on the path to sanity. Then number 3 threw all the character development from 1 & 2 out the window and made us start over. Also a cool thing is that the first level in the first game is called “The American Dream” while the last level in number 2 is called “Waking up from the American Dream”.

  9. Place sounds like a real Shit Hole! Easy enough to avoid the country’s “colorful” side, Stay home!

    • Think I’ll set up the DVR and pop some popcorn to watch the action from the comfort of the family room.

      Don’t know what’ll be more entertaining; the carnage during the games, or the carnage in the news footage.

      There is no place on the continent of the Americas south of the US/Mexico border worth risking one’s health over.

      • There are place in the Caribbean worth seeing, and not crime-ridden. Stay away from the U.S. Virgin Islands, though, especially St. Croix.

        • I agree, places such as St. Maarten. None of the islands are on the ‘continent’.

        • I read your link. Truly sad examples of what appears to be cops exercising poor judgement and over reacting out of a desire to control and not wanting to be interfered with or bothered by some innocent fido.

          We are fortunate here in that we appear to have fewer reactionary LEOs in San Diego County jurisdictions. On the whole, most can do their work without needing to be…thugs.

          Department leadership attitudes plays a big part in that.

      • You don’t get out much. There’s lots of great places in South America… from Colombia on down. And plenty of them are quite safe. From Colombia on down…

      • If it’s on “Pay per view” in USA, watch it from home. Got to be cheaper than going down there!

    • Absolutely, Dano. Many fans travel great distances at large expense to see the World Cup final. Yet, sadly, the possibility of running up against a shortage of tourist-pleasing hooligans is substantial for the host city. Inevitably, some visitors will experience inadequate hooliganism within the stadium given the unavailability of modestly-priced tickets for the hooligans. For those unfortunate few who exit the stadium unbruised and still having a watch on their wrist it can be recommended that they take a random stroll once exiting the venue. They won’t leave Brazil disappointed. An authentic experience is guaranteed!

  12. They’re actually submitting a pamphlet on How to Submit. There are many, many people here in the U.S. who probably agree that it’s a great idea.

  13. Hi there.
    I’m from Rio de Janeiro and i’ve been following TTAG for a while.
    You’re 99% correct except for “police will practice a little extra-judicial killing ahead of the Cup to reduce the overall population of potential perps”.

    It doesn’t work anymore. Police reduce bad guys population and they grow again like ants running from flood. They appear from nowhere and everywhere.

    Now the government makes deals with the bad guys and they work perfectly (for whom, by the way?).
    Deals like “you don’t bother us, we don’t bother you”, “you’re free to do your stuff in your slums as long as you don’t get out of there”, “you leave tourists alone and the police leave you alone”.

    It worked this way at Pan-American Games, when the Pope came here, and when any other major public event takes place. It’s cheaper (since Police has a very limited amount of ammo), cleaner and goes well on the news.

    Everyone smiles, then the tourists go back to their countries and we can go back to our happy daily “bullet dodging”.

    • Seems like you deserve better. I can foresee a similar future here in America, though, if we don’t watch out.

      Or maybe even if we do.

      • Sounds like Chicago. The city tries to buy off the gangs and their sympathizers.

        Then Rahm tells them to “take it in the alley” so it’s not visible from the street.

      • We’ve been “there” for decades. We routinely ‘cut deals’ and offer witness protection for smaller criminals who get us to bigger criminals.

        Realpolitik has been the way of the US for 40+ years…

    • Happens even in Afghanistan among different “coalition partners”. It wasn’t uncommon to have Italian, German or other NATO forces cut deals with the Taliban in their respective sectors to keep the peace until they pull out. Basically, they don’t go out on patrols and stay on their FOBS, while the Taliban don’t actively target them in their base. Both sides claim no fighting in the area and everyone seems happy. However, this arrangement sparks problems because more often than not, it is done in secret and if any other Coalition Forces go into the area or take over, unaware of the arrangement in the first place. Or heaven forbid, U.S. Forces want to actually engage the enemy and are blindsided by the arrangement.

    • I have no doubt you’re right about tourists being better protected than locals. The government down there, like most everywhere else these days, is a progressive one, after all. Meaning, television is reality, and reality is less than television, as Oblivion put it.

      Local regular guys don’t get on TV for being robbed or killed, so why bother with them. After all, their role is just to work harder, bend over and pay for the cops. Who will then spend the money protecting foreigners. Since that is what allows the politicians to preen around and be “hosts” for “important international events” and such.

      • And you better believe they think the World Cup is a big deal. As are the coming Olympics. Those are HUGE, and will bring enough into the region to pay for the money they’ve spent in the preparations, and a good bit more!

  14. seems like the Shannon and Bloomie show would want to make Sao Paulo the new Mom’s poster city showing the level of serendipity that will be achieved when they disarm the populace. because only the police are qualified to carry guns. right ?

  15. “a disarmed populace is a populace plagued by crime”

    Must be why my county in England – with essentially no guns/worst schools in the country/heroin out the arse/200,000 Muslims/gangs in the cities – has a 40% lower murder rate than New Hampshire. We have 700,000 more people than New Hampshire in an area 1/300th the size of New Hampshire. We are poor and deprived by comparison.

    The US – which I have visited extensively – is a shithole in comparison to England, whichever region you go to. Florida and Texas are entire states I would not park my tank in, they are like getting off the plane in Basra. In Brazil and the US and the UK, you are simply dealing with very different people with attitutes to violence which are very, very different.

    • Well, your murder rate is understated by about half. UK law only counts murders when the perp is found and convicted. Looking at inquest data the real UK murder rate is about the same as Northern Virginia. If we counted murders the way you do than the US murder rate would be miniscule since our closure rate is far lower than yours. As another of your countryman pointed out, overall violent crime is about the same in both countries. We are also safer in our homes since the number of home invasions in the US is 1/4 to 1/5 that of the UK with about the same number of burglaries committed per 100k. America’s murders are committed by and among a tiny fraction of the population. Most of the US is as safe or safer than the UK.

      Oh, and you guys didn’t do very well in pacifying Basra, and like always, criticized the way the US military performed despite the fact the we accomplished our mission. Just remember you failed to relieve your troops at Arnhem while the “inferior” US Army successfully relieved ours at Bastogne.

      • And when Americans think “murder rate”, just about the last place we’ll ever mention (or think about) is New Hampshire.

    • Laughing Outloud said:

      “Must be why my county in England – with essentially no guns/worst schools in the country/heroin out the arse/200,000 Muslims/gangs in the cities – has a 40% lower murder rate than New Hampshire. We have 700,000 more people than New Hampshire in an area 1/300th the size of New Hampshire. We are poor and deprived by comparison.”

      You have an OFFICIAL lower murder rate because the U.K.’s officials like to play games with the official murder rate. Here, from the U.K. parliament’s website is proof.

      “Since 1967, homicide figures for England and Wales have been adjusted to exclude any cases which do not result in conviction.”
      source: http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm199900/cmselect/cmhaff/95/95ap25.htm

      In America, when a dead body is discovered, and there is no evidence of natural causes or suicide as being the cause of death, the police rule it as a homicide.

      Now do you understand why murder rate in England is OFFICIALLY so much lower than America?

      • I am going to be fair about this stat. The reason the UK only counts closures as a murder is because they take the innocent until proven guilty thing pretty seriously. Unlike property crimes or assaults where something is missing or the victim can identify an attacker finding a dead body does not necessarily mean there was foul play. A coroner’s inquest can establish that foul play was the cause of the victim’s death but without finding an actual perp it can’t be definitively established in court that it was a murder. One should also note that it is murder conviction in a year that are counted and not bodies found. The British Police are much more effective at closing murder cases than our boys in blue. I believe the number is something like 50%. Considering the findings from coroners inquests the UK murder rate is somewhere around 2.0 per 100k which is still lower than most US cities. By Comparison Canada’s murder rate is 1.6 per 100k. Canada is not a gun owners paradise but there are more guns in the hands of private citizens than you might think.

        • “still lower than most US cities” Of course, because all crime is concentrated in the cities. Why not try comparing apples to apples, and include as much exurban and rural area as Britain has proportionately? Or even split the Brit numbers into city and other?

      • Comparing body counts is really irrelevant, because in the United States, the right of the people to keep and bear arms isn’t supposed to be infringed. That’s the fight we need to win, not convincing Piers Morgan that guns are cool.

        • If we want to convince Piers Morgan to do anything – which we shouldn’t – it’s to stick his Redcoat head in a wood-chipper.

    • Piers, I know you have a lot of time on your hands before your unemployment runs out, but you should save up as much as you can for the lawyers you are going to need to be able to stay in any single sovereign state. Don’t think extolling the virtues of the Orwellian nightmare that is the U.K. will curry any favor.

      “Enjoy the fact that your overlords are a frail old woman and a tiny baby.”

    • Must be why my county in England – with essentially no guns/worst schools in the country/heroin out the arse/200,000 Muslims/gangs in the cities – has a 40% lower murder rate than New Hampshire. We have 700,000 more people than New Hampshire in an area 1/300th the size of New Hampshire. We are poor and deprived by comparison.

      Hold the phone, Sparky. I live in New Hampshire.

      We have a population of 1.3 million; the U. K. close to 56 million (a difference of a wee bit more than 700,000).

      The U. K. murder rate is 1.2/ per 100,000; New Hampshire, 0.8.

      I won’t bother to look up the land area.

  16. A friend of mine and his buddy went out to eat and do a little drinking in Rio in the mid 90s. Between a couple of drinks and a let down from the days work caused a loss of situational awareness. They got jumped by a a couple of thugs. Fortunately they were able to break free and GTFO of the way. The took a lot flack and hazing the next day for getting surprised — they were CIA. Just remember that as bad as Chicago is there are places in the world that are far worse.

  17. I don’t understand why they just didn’t ask the NY Times for their “passivity” instruction booklet.

  18. There’s still time for Sao Paolo to hire Gary McCarthy, isn’t there? He’ll fix everything!

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