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Murders, Killings by Police Rose in Brazil Last Year

Both murders and killings by police rose in Brazil during 2020 despite the coronavirus pandemic, according to new data published on Thursday, reversing gains made in the first years of President Jair Bolsonaro’s term.

The Brazilian Yearbook of Public Security showed homicides in Brazil rose 4% in 2020, with 50,033 people killed, giving Latin America’s biggest country a murder rate of 23.6 per 100,000 people. Meanwhile, the country’s police killed 6,416 people, up 0.3% compared with the previous year, the report showed.

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The report, published by the Brazilian Public Security Forum, found that 76.2% of people murdered in Brazil were Black, with the vast majority young men. The numbers for those killed by police were similar, with 78.9% Black and most of them also young men.

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