Police suspected of killing at least 30 in Brazil(in one night)

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil, April 1 (Reuters) - Gunmen believed to be rogue policemen killed at least 30 people in a shooting spree in a Rio de Janeiro suburb that officials said on Friday could be a bloody response to a crackdown on corrupt and brutal officers.

It was worst death squad massacre in more than a decade in the Brazilian city, which has become accustomed to daily bloodshed involving police, drugs gangsters and other criminals.

Innocent men, women and children were killed at random in Thursday night's attack in Baixada Fluminense in Rio's rough north side.

The victims included a civil servant drinking in a bar, a young boy playing pinball, a cook on his way home from work and a transvestite prostitute, morgue officials said.

Marcelo Itagiba, Rio's Public Security Secretary, said outlaw police likely carried out the massacre in reprisal for the arrests earlier on Thursday of eight officers suspected of a separate double murder. In that case, police were filmed throwing the severed head of one victim over the wall of a police station.

The arrests were part of an drive against corruption and criminal activity by police in a city that is on the verge of social breakdown despite being a spectacular tourist destination.

"This is a public calamity, a barbarous crime," Itagiba said at a news conference on Friday.

Early signs from the investigation ordered by Rio Governor Rosinha Matheus suggested police officers were the killers.

Bullets collected from the crime scene were shot by the same guns that police use, said Alvaro Lins, head of the state's investigation force.

Justice Minister Marcio Thomaz Bastos promised the murderers would be severely punished.

Local officials blamed death squads formed by corrupt cops to carry out executions, either for hire or for other personal motives.

"Everyone knows that there are extermination groups acting indiscriminately here," said Lindeberg Farias, the mayor of Nova Iguacu, where some of killings took place.

Witnesses said the gunmen fired at random, leaving innocent victims no time to escape.

"It was very quick. I got up to my house and went down the hallway when I heard a rain of gunfire. We were stunned. When we arrived, the car (carrying the shooters) had already left," Creuza Regina, the grandmother of one victim, told reporters.

"I'm in shock. My nephew was playing with his cousin and was brutally assassinated," said Angelo Soares, uncle of a 14-year-old victim.

This was Brazil's worst urban massacre since 1993, when 21 people were murdered by a police death squad.

"Any hopes that such actions were horrors of the past have been dashed by the events of last night, which show the lengths that 'death squads' will go to in order to spread terror and resist attempts by the authorities to stop their activities," Amnesty International said in a statement.

Rio is a city plagued by violent crime, with rival drugs gangs controlling many slum areas and defying authorities.

"The situation is getting much worse. The control of public authorities over the situation is very precarious," Jose Vicente da Silva Filho, a former National Security Secretary and police commander, told Reuters.

International human rights groups often say Rio police have a history of summary executions. Officials said police killed 983 "suspects" last year and 1,195 in 2003. Last year, some 50 Rio police were killed in the line of duty.

I'll tell you, Martin, in '92 when I was in Rio, the streets were full of homeless. My Carioca I and I found a kitten on the way "home" one night and she wanted to take it with her because she told me the homeless would eat it. I don't think she was far from the truth. in truth she had more to worry about me than the kitten had to worry about the homeless... : )

In '94 when I went back, just about ALL of them were gone. The people I spoke to said they rounded them up before the Earth conference. If they returned after they were taken out of the city, then they were killed. Some were simply rounded up and killed. Everyone was very "quiet" about this, but I heard it from many, many different Cariocas while there.

The big problem the Cariocas have is that the homeless were made so welcome that they believed they were entitled to befoul certain areas. They stole, used public areas for toilets and committed horribly violent acts at random.

My friend Anna who came here in '95 told me that they were glad the police were rounding them up. She explained that the shopkeepers pooled money to buy killers to rid themselves of the homeless. They told me that "these people are animals and they will kill you without a second thought" for your jewelry or just for looking at them the wrong way. Apparently she lost a "good friend" this way shortly before. He got mobbed one night while caught off guard and that was it.

Anyway, tough situation. I used to feel a great deal of compassion and I was shocked to hear her "Let them be killed" attitude.

Now I here stories from San Francisco about the homeless taking liberty there and making life general miserable if not completely dangerous for productive members of society. The Socialist attitude is slowly chipping away at our culture now.

So will we end up like Rio some day? I'll take the morenas and the mountains, Senhor. The rest they can keep.

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