The beating of a black Brazilian man to death by supermarket security guards on the eve of the country’s Black Consciousness Day has sparked mass outrage.
A short clip showed one guard restraining Joao Alberto Silveira Freitas just outside the doors of a Carrefour supermarket in the city of Porto Alegre.
The other guard could be seen pummelling him with repeated blows to the face, ahead of Friday’s annual commemoration.
A store employee stood to the side filming the horrifying incident, while other clips – shot afterward – showed a guard kneeling on Freitas’ back.
Dozens of anti-racism protesters entered a Carrefour in Brazil’s capital, Brasilia, on Friday morning, chanting ‘Black lives matter!’.
One held a sign reading: ‘Don’t shop at Carrefour. You could die.’ Inside another Carrefour in Rio de Janeiro, protesters shouted ‘Carrefour Killer!’ as a black man lay still atop the conveyor belt of a checkout. They forced the store’s closure.
In Sao Paulo, protesters smashed the front window of a Carrefour, scattered goods from shelves over the floor and set a fire that employees hurried to extinguish.
A short clip showed one guard restraining Joao Alberto Silveira Freitas just outside the doors of a Carrefour supermarket in the city of Porto Alegre. The other guard could be seen pummelling him with repeated blows to the face, ahead of Friday’s annual commemoration
Jonata Anjo lies on a checkout counter at a Carrefour supermarket during a protest against the murder of Black man Joao Alberto Silveira Freitas at a Carrefour supermarket the night before
Activists including members of Black Lives Matter march against the murder of Black man Joao Alberto Silveira Freitas at a Carrefour supermarket
A demonstrator damages a storefront during a march in Sao Paulo on National Black Consciousness Day and in protest against the death of Joao Alberto Silveira Freitas
Activists including members of Black Lives Matter demonstrate inside a Carrefour supermarket against the murder of Black man Joao Alberto Silveira Freitas
Demonstrators march in Sao Paulo during the National Black Consciousness Day and in protest against the death of Joao Alberto Silveira Freitas
Demonstrators burn objects to block a street during a protest against racism
Carrefour released a statement lamenting Freitas’ ‘brutal death,’ and said it will end its contract with the security company, fire the store manager who was on duty and close the Porto Alegre store out of respect for the victim.
The men who beat Freitas have been detained and are being investigated for homicide due to the victim’s asphyxiation and his inability to defend himself, the civil police chief for the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul said.
One of the men was a temporary military police officer who was off-duty, said Rodrigo Mohr, head of the state’s military police.
The two spoke on a Twitter video posted by Gov. Eduardo Leite, who highlighted recent state policies enacted to combat racial intolerance.
‘Unfortunately, on this day in which we should be celebrating those public policies, we come across scenes that leaves us all indignant due to the excessive violence that caused the death of a Black citizen at the supermarket,’ he said.
Black Consciousness Day is observed as a holiday in many parts of Brazil.
In Rio on Friday, a group of people participated in a celebration with Afro-Brazilian dance and music in the working-class Santa Marta favela.
A woman puts out a fire at a vandalized Carrefour store during a march in Sao Paulo on National Black Consciousness Day and in protest against the death of Freitas
A man climbs a ‘mountain’ of tires put by protesters in a Carrefour supermarket in the Barra da Tijuca neighborhood, to prevent sales during a protest against racism, in Rio de Janeiro
Employees douse a fire set by protesters inside a Carrefour supermarket during a protest against the murder of Black man Joao Alberto Silveira Freitas
Jonata Anjo lies on a checkout counter at a Carrefour supermarket during a protest against the murder of Black man Joao Alberto Silveira Freitas at a Carrefour supermarket the night before
Products knocked off shelves by protesters litter an aisle at a Carrefour supermarket during a protest against the murder of Black man Joao Alberto Silveira Freitas
Residents protest against racism, after Joao Alberto Silveira Freitas was beaten to death by security guards at a Carrefour supermarket in Porto Alegre
Demonstrators gesture during a march in Sao Paulo on National Black Consciousness Day and in protest against the death of Joao Alberto Silveira Freitas
Protesters vandalize a Carrefour supermarket during a protest against racism after the murder of Joao Silveira, in Sao Paulo, Brazil
Demonstrators vandalize a police vehicle during a protest against racism, after Joao Alberto Silveira Freitas was beaten to death by guards at a Carrefour supermarket in Porto Alegre
Members of a samba school performed a ritualistic ‘washing’ of the steps leading up into the hillside neighborhood.
Black and mixed-race people account for about 57 per cent of Brazil’s population but constitute 74 per cent of victims of lethal violence, according to the Brazilian Forum on Public Safety, a nongovernmental organization.
The percentage is even higher, 79 per cent, for those killed by police.
Local online news site G1 reported that last night’s incident at the Carrefour in Porto Alegre followed a confrontation between Freitas and a supermarket employee, who then called security. Both guards were white, G1 reported.
After the death of George Floyd earlier this year in the US, Black Lives Matter protests drew hundreds of thousands to the streets around the world.
They resonated in Brazil, too, where demonstrators turned out to demand justice for a 14-year-old boy killed by police in Rio de Janeiro.
Protesters in Brasilia also gathered Friday outside a governmental institution that promotes Black culture to denounce its chief, Sergio Camargo.
Demonstrators wearing facemasks in protests against racism in Brazil
Brazilian military police clash with demonstrators during a protest at the entrance of a Carrefour supermaket where Joao Alberto Silveira Freitas was beaten to death
Thousands of people protest against racism after the murder of Joao Silveira, in front of the Sao Paulo Museum of Art in Sao Paulo, Brazil
View of a burning hallway in a Carrefour supermarket during a protest against racism after the murder of Joao Silveira, in Sao Paulo, Brazil
Camargo, who is Black, has denied the existence of structural racism in Brazilian society and called the Black Lives Matter movement ‘Lefty garbage.’
Speaking to reporters, Vice President Hamilton Mourao lamented the incident at Carrefour, but denied it reflected racism.
‘Racism doesn’t exist in Brazil. That is something they want to import here,’ Mourao said. ?I lived in the United States. There is racism there.’
The French supermarket chain has found itself in controversy before in Brazil.
In August, a man died within a Carrefour in northeastern city Recife; his body was covered by umbrellas and the supermarket continued operating for several hours. Carrefour apologized in a statement and said it was changing its protocols to close locations when deaths occur.
In 2018, a security guard at a Carrefour in Sao Paulo state beat a stray dog to death with a metal bar. The dog had been well known in the area, and Carrefour agreed to pay 1 million reais ($188,000) to a fund for the protection of animals.