police vs. the masses

A recent dispatch from Knight-Ridder discusses the aftermath of a police massacre in the favelas in which 30 bystanders were killed. Earlier, eight officers were caught on video dumping the decapitated bodies of two suspects outside a police station. Yet the favelas have the worse reputation than the police. My experience: favelas can be dangerous, but so can the cops. Yet the ordinary folk--which means perhaps 99 percent of the squatters--are simply hardworking people priced out of the housing market. It's time for the mass of Rio's squatters to demand better conduct from the politicians and the police. I'll post more on this as I find more in the Brazilian press.