O Arnesto nos convidô prum samba, ele mora no Brás
Nóis fumo e não encontremos ninguém”
Nóis vortemo cuma baita duma reiva!
Da outra veiz nóis num vai mais,
Nóis não semos tatu!
JusBrasil reported in July about a shakedown scheme operating in Brás in which cops and city inspectors were shaking down irregular street vendors for bribes. The local TV Globo affiliate managed to film them doing it.
The fucked-up thing is that one of the people named in the follow-up to the case — get this — is, according to my wife — “we have a slight problem, dear …” — my freaking immigration lawyer, a former state judicial policeman.
My wife: “So should we keep on using this guy, or what?”
What a question! Still, the man has already banked a sizable retainer, and the entire process has been a nightmare. I finally have all my papers in order, including a certificate from the FBI saying I have never committed a crime.
Never committed a crime. But my lawyer may have. Maybe I should have, too. Did I waste my youth?
Os 11 presos nesta sexta-feira (11) por envolvimento em uma nova máfia dos fiscais na região do Brás, Centro de São Paulo, atuavam em dois setores diferentes. Segundo o promotor responsável pelo caso, José Carlos Blat, um grupo exigia propina dos camelôs e outro do setor de alimentação ilegal, como carros de cachorro quente.
The 11 persons arrested on Friday, July 11, for involvement in a new “mafia of the inspectors,” in Brás, downtown São Paulo, worked in two different sectors. According to the prosecutor in the case, Mr. Blat, one group asked for a bribe from street vendors while another shook down irregular food vendors, such as hot dog carts.
“Identificamos duas grandes quadrilhas que funcionavam dentro da subprefeitura (Mooca). Qualquer pessoa que quisesse fazer uma atividade do tipo era obrigada a entregar valores, senão não conseguiria trabalhar e teria a sua mercadoria apreendida”, afirmou.
“We identified two large crime rings functioning inside the subprefecture of Mooca. Anyone engaged in any type of activity had to hand over sums of moneys or else they could not work and would have their merchandise seized,” he said.
The incumbent mayor — he named his brother to head New Projects at the Metrô Authority, which is now in trouble for running campaign propaganda on its Web site, go figure — is favored to win reelection.
Free advice to the opposing candidate: Go negative early and often. Bombard the guy with images of the Great Smoking Hole of Pinheiros — a World Bank-funded Metrô station under construction collapses catastrophically, killing 7 persons (above).
The entire region is suffering sinkholes, local residents are saying in the free papers. See also
- São Paulo Diary: Hole Patrol Extols Control!
- São Paulo Diary: Fresh Bubbling Newsflow From the Pinheiros Smoking Hole Watch
- Sampa Diary: “Son of the Great Smoking Hole”
- Shocked! Shocked! Brazilian Contractors Rewarded for Failure!
- “In Hell, The Engineers Are Brazilian and the Musicians Are German”
The Great Smoking Hole of December 2006. Those ain't Tonka trucks, Bubba. Amazing this has not become a campaign issue yet. After all, the incumbent mayor named his brother head of new projects at the Metrô authority around the same time. Source: G1/Globo
I am thinking about getting into political consulting, like Dick Morris skulking around Mexico or James Carville wading through rioting miners in Bolivia. I don’t vote here (Dick Morris doesn’t vote in Mexico, either — or have the right to engage in politics there, for that matter) but I nevertheless offer the free advice:
Is this town any less of a smoking pit of doom than it was four years ago? If not, vote The Other Candidate!
But more on the local elections later. Truckloads of money are getting spent on astonishingly good TV ads for the incumbent, who was last seen chasing a protester around and threatening him with bodily harm. On live TV. And cracking very bad jokes about The Great Smoking Hole.
De acordo com o promotor, é provável que mais pessoas estejam envolvidas e outros focos de corrupção são investigados dentro das subprefeituras, além da Mooca. “Infelizmente, esse tipo de criminalidade não foi combatido a contento. As pessoas envolvidas sofisticaram o crime, não colocam mais as mão. Os camelôs têm medo de denunciar, mas todas da existência.”
The prosecutor says more persons may be involved …
… like my immigration lawyer?
… and other centers of corruption are being investigated in other subprefectures besides Mooca.
Other subprefectures run by the current city administration under the tutelage of Andrea “Yes, He Is One of THOSE Matarazzos” Matarazzo? Mooca also had a modest little scandal over why illegal gambling joints were still operating there.
This after a spreadsheet showed up that seemed to indicate payoffs to just about every single police precinct in the great metro area. For a review of THAT flap, see
“Unfortunately this sort of crime can’t be attacked by going after the visible portion of the scheme. These people have grown more sophisticated, they no longer show their hand. The street vendors are afraid to file a complaint, but they all acknowledge it exists.”
Ainda segundo o promotor, os envolvidos extorquiam cerca de R$ 560 mil por mês.
According to the prosecutor, those involved extorted some R$560,000 a month.
This town is depressingly mobbed-up. Forgive me. I am having one of those days. “Autumn in New York / Why does it seem so inviting …?”
When I was commuting to a consulting gig for a New York IR agency, on the CPTM along the lovely Rio Pinheiros, the stench I had to confront every day was just unbearable. Stinky feet and corpses, gone nuclear. Lord.
Filed under: Brazil, Life in Sambodia, Organized Crime
