Sao Paulo police attack students protesting far-right governor

For the second time in as many days, the military police of São Paulo have charged unarmed students who this Friday protested against the governor of the state of São Paulo, Tarcisio de Freitas, former minister of Jair Bolsonaro and currently one of the greatest supporters of the far right in Brazil. This confrontation took place at the USP Faculty of Law of the University of São Paulo.

Students gathered for the inauguration ceremony of Sao Paulo’s new attorney general, Paulo Sergio de Oliveira e Costa, at the entrance to the centuries-old college building in Largo San Francisco, in the historic center of the capital Sao Paulo, began shouting slogans against the governor. University students called Tarsizio a fascist, complained about police brutality against students, shouting, “Students are not the police’s business,” and defended agents’ use of body cameras to prevent excesses.

Videos circulating on social media showed military police attacking students, including female students, pushing them, slapping them, punching them in the head, and preparing to use force against them. The courageous act of the director of the Faculty of Law, Professor Celso Campilongo, who stood between the students and the agents and managed to avoid widespread confrontation at great cost, was worth the students’ time.

Earlier this week, military police, who have recently been involved in episodes of brutal violence backed by the governor’s defense of a hard-line police force, were already attacking high school and university students, this time in Alespa. Legislative Assembly of the State of Sao Paulo. Students at the time were protesting Tarcisio de Freitas’s project, which was eventually approved, which would create so-called civil-military schools, where discipline was the responsibility of the police and agents used batons, gas grenades and more. violence to prevent protesters from entering, eight of whom were arrested.