Ending Violence without Ending Violence?

Yay! Today I was able to speak with someone who works directly on my project. We met with Congress person Claudete Alves, one of four women on Sao Paulo’s city council and the only Black woman (and the first in four-hundred years). Since my work examines police violence, women’s police stations and anti-violence against women movements, meeting with Claudete was very important. Her narrative confirmed many of suspicions, yet, I was surprised by one of major differences between the US and Brazil. In the US, incarcerated people are disproportionately Black, Latino or Indigenous, however, most of the imprisoned men in Brazil are mixed race people. I assumed that the majority of imprisoned people in Brazil would be the same people who are denied access to resources. They are not Black, however, because as Alves said, when it comes to young Black men, “cops shoot to kill.” In fact, it is only after they have been killed that police check ID’s to see if these young men were their intended targets, Alves noted. One of the members of Afro Reggae organization corroborated this practically axiomatic position by saying, “if you are poor, Black, male and over 25 in Brazil, you are a survivor.” However, the vast majority of women prisoners are Black women, whom the police treat less harshly than Black men, but are subject to numerous forms of racialized state violence. This is a position worth investigated tomorrow with the Geledes organization.

After explaining the racism and cruelty of the police in Brazil, I asked Alves how many men are imprisoned for committing violence against women vis-à-vis the women’s police stations (which all-women stations that prosecute violence against women). In response, she explained her work to implement the Maria de Pena law, aimed at protecting women from violence. While I was excited to here the evolution of this law, I am still left wondering how using the police, whom commit such atrocious violence against Black communities, can protect Black women from violence. During our fortuitous luncheon with Alves and an attorney comrade, one of my initial assumptions was confirmed. She said that aside from this one case, she could not think of any other violence against women cases that have even been prosecuted, akin to Black police stations where no white person has ever been convicted for committing racism, an illegal act in Brazil. After I asked her if Black women use these police stations she answered with a resounding “no.” They don’t use them, she postulated, because they view the police as hostile and because they think that the police will not listen to them.

If Black women are not using women’s police stations, then how can they be seen as a medium to end violence against women? What underlying ideologies legitimize the antiviolence against women movement’s use of these stations if only white women are using them? What other remedies might be used? We must imagine alternative ways to address violence – if we really want it to end it.