

To Soften Image, Brazilian Police Ride in Atop Horned Beasts - danso
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/21/world/americas/to-soften-image-brazilian-police-ride-in-atop-horned-beasts.html

======
danso
The only mounted police I've seen are horseback police in the States, but it
seems like they have similar, positive effects, even in urban areas. When they
aren't galloping down one of the busy avenues, horseback NYPD are almost
always surrounded by people wanting to see the horse up-close. The high
vantage point can't hurt either. Even though I still laugh everytime I see a
horseback cop waiting at the traffic light and then sprint down the street,
it's still a more welcoming site than cops on motorcycles or Segways.

The last day of the California state fair often breaks out into a mild
riot...a cop told me that having cops walk directly into the crowd is often
enough to break up the disturbances, while not putting the officer or the
crowd at great risks...I guess for mischief-level riots (think of kids wanting
to go crazy the week before school starts), the crowd might be willing to bang
up a police cruiser, but might draw the line at hurting a horse.

~~~
aroch
Technically, bicycle cops are also mounted police. I'm always bemused by the
dichotomy that exists within bike-cops; the obviously love biking ones who
probably volunteered and the ones that are there because they failed some PT
requirement.

------
forinti
Police in Brazil wear army uniforms, paint skulls on their vehicles, and kill
about 6 people a day (mostly poor and black). This has a lot to do with the
fact that it was created to defend the state, not the people. So there's a lot
to do.

~~~
madez
The state including officials and parties is corrupt, the education is
basically non-existent, the rich and powerful take whatever they can and the
infrastructure is disastrous (water problems in São Paulo since years, in some
parts of the city water gets turned off at midday, and when there is water it
has more chlorine than public swimming pools in Germany). From my experience,
I have to conclude that Brazil is a semi-failed state. The more I know of this
country, the less I respect the elite that is so proud of Brazil when in other
countries.

But, on the positive side of things, this makes Brazil a place to learn about
human social behaviour when there are no or few rules. That knowledge is
important in developed countries, too.

~~~
nandemo
> The state including officials and parties is corrupt,

This is true. But the rest of your comment is simply hyperbolic.

Brazil isn't a "semi-failed state". Iraq, Yemen, Somalia are recent examples
of failed states. Brazil's got a government, there's no doubt about its
sovereignty over Brazilian territory, our economy is roughly the size of UK's,
etc. We even get illegal immigrants.

~~~
madez
The public schools are famously bad, even Feynman noted that many years ago
[1]. And while the public universities are better, it is very hard to get a
place. This leads to a poorly educated public and an educated elite.

The income inequality in Brazil is huge [2]. While the elite earns more money
than they would in comparable positions in Germany, everybody else earns way
less. And they don't feel bad for it, not an in inch.

Since I live here I suffered several power outages, the internet connection is
unreliable, the roads are in bad state, and what I said about the chlorine in
the water is not a hyperbole. I brought some of the tap water to Germany and
did admittingly unscientific but nevertheless tests and other people agreed
too, that the tap water here has a lot of clorine. I meant what I said
literally.

In Brazil there are regions where the state has no records of who lives there.
In that sense, the government has not sovereign control over its whole
territory. I'd also like to point to the favelas. Brazilian society advances
(more or less) simply because the poor people in Brazil have good hearts.

Brazil is like a colony where the colonial power moved from an external
government to the very own government. You have a small well-educated elite
with money which lives in 24/7/365 guarded places, and you have the rest.

Of course, what I said is not in general true. There are exceptions. However,
what I said explains the general picture of life in Brazil/São Paulo. I think
people outside of Brazil should be shown this, and not the marketed tourism-
paradise.

[1] [http://v.cx/2010/04/feynman-brazil-
education.html](http://v.cx/2010/04/feynman-brazil-education.html)

[2]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Income_inequality_in_Brazil](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Income_inequality_in_Brazil)

------
personlurking
From the same island,

"It is one of the most enticing archaeological mysteries of the Americas — a
long-overlooked ancient culture that existed for 900 years on an island at the
mouth of Amazon River and then disappeared."

[http://www.denverpost.com/ci_18242426](http://www.denverpost.com/ci_18242426)

Also quite beautiful are their ceramics which are still being reproduced today
(type 'arte marajoara' into Google to see more)

[http://i.imgur.com/aie8Bny.jpg](http://i.imgur.com/aie8Bny.jpg),
[http://i.imgur.com/20kyvS8.jpg](http://i.imgur.com/20kyvS8.jpg)

