“É o céu da boca do inferno esperando você” : a violência policial e o marcador social raça – representações sociais sobre o campo de análise

Abstract

This paper is a case study about the Military Police Institution of the State of Rio Grande do Sul. It seeks to analyze the social representations on the operation of this institution, focusing on the debate on police violence and its relations with race and racialization. This research aims to analyze the existence and influence of race as a social construct in the police approach, identifying its relations with the Public Security in Brazil associated with the idea of social representations that shape (and are shaped by) the social actors present in this context. We seek to outline the state of the art of Military Police formation in Brazil, as well as the shaping of Military Police officers within this Institution, bringing up the similarities and differences between some Brazilian states. In addition, we sought to discuss the police warrant and the legitimacy of this action. The social marker Race was brought through a historical analysis of the end of slavery in Brazil, as well as its relation with the social and geographical debates and its approach with the arrival of the Positive School of Criminology in Brazil. The fieldwork was carried out from interviews with 12 officers of the Military Brigade of Rio Grande do Sul, as well as through two focus groups with youngsters of the Youth Center at Lomba do Pinheiro district in Porto Alegre. The social actors' perceptions on police violence and the police-making itself, as well as the influence of the racial social marker on this field of interactions, stands out. The results elucidated a dynamic of police-community interaction embedded in an imagery/perception of constant combat, permeated by fear and anguish brought by the actors. Identity processes are (re)constructed in these relations and in these affirmation of the "Self" in relation to the "Others," being permeated by processes of racialization that carry within the social construction of the "born as a suspect."