“How Katrina Washed The Scum Off The Streets of New New Orleans”

Someday a real rain will come and wash all this scum off the streets. –Travis Bickle, Taxi Driver
The Observatório da Imprensa (Brazil), notes this jewel from Veja magazine (Editora Abril), from the “Letter from the Editor” published in its latest edition.
De Nova Orleans, André Petry, correspondente de VEJA em Nova York, mandou um emocionante relato, [...]

From Elliot Ness to Laurentiy Beria: Veja on Brazil’s Top Cop

Item: From Elliot Ness to Laurentiy Beria: Veja on Brazil’s Top Cop (Google Documents).
A follow-up to

Brazil: “The War on Organized Crime is a Communist Coup d’Etat”
Brazil: “The Chief of the Politicized Gestapo Speaks” (August 2007)
Whatever Happened to the Secret Offshore Bank Account of Brazil’s Top Cop?
Veja (Brazil): Behind the Scenes of an “Exemplary” Investigative Report [...]

Traffic Is Murder: Scene From a Sambodian Saturday Night

I read it in the Diário do Grande ABC, the daily newspaper of the “seven cities” of the greater São Paulo metro area (population 2.5 million), the metropolitan industrial belt and birthplace of the independent labor movement that gave rise to President Lula.
Um banal acidente de trânsito na esquina da Avenida Goiás com a Rua [...]

Rio: “Internal Affairs Commissioner Shot in Armed Robbery Attempt”

Delegado baleado: A Rio de Janeiro police internal affairs commissioner gets shot in rush hour traffic.
He participated in expelling the two reputed leaders of the Justice League “militia,” Jerominho, a city councilman for the PMDB, and his brother Natalino, an impeached ex-state legislator for the DEM-PFL, from the state judicial police force.
Post hoc ergo propter [...]

Sambodian Phone Scam No. 47

A man calls my wife just now and says that he has information about a criminal charge made against her regarding an incident at the Cabo Frio airport in Rio de Janeiro.
My wife has never been through the Cabo Frio airport.
We have been through Santos Dumont a few times in our travels, but never Cabo [...]

Rio: “Vote Batgirl or Officer Friendly Here Will Blow Your Freaking Head Off,” Redux

PF: milícia tentou matar moradores que não concordaram com propaganda em suas casas: O Dia (Rio de Janeiro) reports on today’s arrest of Batgirl, claiming that
“… the militia tried to kill residents who refused to display election propaganda [for Batgirl] on their homes …”
Ouch.
Additional detail: Six of those arrested in the federal sweep were [...]

Hobbesian Rio: Tupi Feds Bust Batgirl

In Campo Grande, a suburb of Rio, militia activity is controlled by the League of Justice. “This is a militia that acts like a big monopoly, with massive use of force, and with mafia characteristics, given that it is family-controlled,” explained Freixo.
Polícia Federal faz operação no Rio e prende candidata a vereadora: Valor Economico runs [...]

Hobbesian Rio: “Public administration was the militia’s partner in crime, says CPI president”

Carnival of collusions: Capt. Guimarães (left) — a military torturer turned king of the jogo do bicho and president of the League of Independent Escolas de Samba — with Rio mayor Cesar “Chairman” “The Naked” Maia (second from left) during Carnaval 2006. Guimarães later jailed for buying very senior Rio judges with mountains of money. [...]

Rio de Janeiro: “GatoNet, Alt.Public.Transport Worth R$280 Million a Year”

O Globo reporter Fernanda Pontes with a front page story today on the economics of organized crime in Rio de Janeiro.
I am always interested in stories that try to fit the economics of the underworld into an Excel (or Open Office) spreadsheet.
Ever since its groundbreaking editorial package on “the new dictatorship” a year ago, O [...]

The Mexican Radio Effect: Campaign Propaganda on Tupi YouTube

I wish I was in Tijuana
Eating barbecued iguana
I’d take requests on the telephone
I’m on a wavelength far from home
I feel a hot wind on my shoulder
I dial it in from south of the border
I hear the talking of the DJ
Can’t understand just what does he say?
I’m on a Mexican radio. I’m [...]