From: "Curtis Price" <cansv-AT-igc.apc.org> Date: Mon, 21 Jul 1997 19:12:18 +0000 Subject: AUT: (Fwd) Thieves run wild during Brazilian police strike This posting gives me an excuse to relay a quote which I've already sprung on a couple list members. "On the barricades, a houseburglar will be more valuable than a Plehanov" - Alexander Bogdanov Bogdanov was a Bolshevik who was very critical of Lenin and nearly had him expelled from the Bolshevik Party. Curtis ------- Forwarded Message Follows ------- Date: Sun, 20 Jul 1997 11:20:14 -0700 From: NewsHound <NewsHound-AT-hound.com> Reply-to: NewsHound-AT-hound.com Subject: Thieves run wild during Brazilian police strike NewsHound article from "STRIKES" hound, score "62." Thieves run wild during Brazilian police >>strike<< BY MICHAEL CHRISTIE BRASILIA (Reuter) - Thieves are running amok in the northeastern Brazilian city of Recife, taking advantage of a policemen's >>strike<< to rob at will, newspapers and officials said Sunday. The newspapers said Pernambuco state governor Miguel Arraes requested extra army reinforcements Saturday to try to bring calm back to the state capital. ``A wave of violence has brought Recife to a stop. Without police in the streets, criminals took over the capital of Pernambuco yesterday, robbing people and shops and machine-gunning automatic cash machines,'' Globo newspaper wrote. Officials acknowledged that the city, a popular international beach resort, had been plunged into chaos. ``What the newspapers say is basically true, but I can't confirm any details,'' an official at Recife police headquarters said, declining to give his name. The wave of violence peaked Saturday. Bandits blocked a viaduct early in the morning, demanding ''tolls'' from drivers. In the afternoon, a group of about 50 adolescents rampaged unhindered down one of Recife's main shopping streets, mugging passers-by and robbing shops. And the underground railway stopped calling at a station in a notorious slum because of the lack of security. Brazil's policemen's >>strike<< began last month in Belo Horizonte, capital of the state of Minas Gerais, where one person died when strikers fought military police. It has since spread through 15 of Brazil's 27 states. Tensions came to a head again Thursday in Alagoas when >>striking<< police traded shots with troops guarding the state's legislative assembly. At least three police officers were injured. Police representatives say they are desperate. ``We are tired of being hungry. We are tired of living in the slums,'' said Cpl. Wilson de Oliveira Morais of the Association of Soldiers and Corporals of the Military Police. ``We know we are causing chaos, but we are desperate,'' he told Reuters in a telephone interview. In Sao Paulo, the military police were recently granted a 34 percent pay rise, taking the basic monthly wage to $560. But elsewhere, such as in Rio de Janeiro, the monthly wage of a recruit is less than the official minimum wage of $114. The states, which set and pay police wages, are unable to pay extra after years of financial imprudence. ------------------------------------------------------------ NewsHound is a service of Knight-Ridder, Inc. For more information, write to: speak-AT-hound.com This material is copyrighted and may not be republished without permission of the originating newspaper or wire service. ------------------------------------------------------------ For more information, visit the NewsHound website at http://www.newshound.com or send an email to speak-AT-hound.com. --- from list aut-op-sy-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
Display software: ArchTracker © Malgosia Askanas, 2000-2005