There is something very wrong, absurd and criminal about the way some supermarkets and stores deal with people accused of shoplifting or similar actions. The suspects, dominated by security guards and other employees of these places, should be handed over to the police for investigation of their actions. Threatening, beating, torturing and killing are crimes, and as such unacceptable. In addition to the penalties provided for in the country’s legal framework, consumers should stop shopping at these establishments.
The most recent case occurred in a supermarket in the municipality of Canoas, in Rio Grande do Sul. Two years ago, a black citizen was beaten and killed in a supermarket in Porto Alegre.
This violence occurs throughout Brazil. In 2019, a young man died after being attacked by a security guard at a hypermarket in Rio de Janeiro. Later that year, a 17-year-old teenager was whipped by two security guards in a supermarket in the South Zone of São Paulo.
In many of these cases, violence is due to racism. Non-bailable and imprescriptible crime, subject to imprisonment for up to five years. The law states that torture must be dealt with severely. Homicide is a heinous crime. Serious bodily injury can lead the perpetrator to imprisonment for a period of one to five years.
Associating products and services with such crimes can be fatal for any type of company. But there is still a worrying mentality that whoever commits an alleged (or real) crime must pay for it immediately, with refinements of perversity, through violence committed by security guards and other professionals.
One of the assumptions of civility is the right to defend oneself against an accusation through a lawyer, paid by the suspect, accused or defendant, or by the State, when this person does not have the financial conditions to afford his/her defense.
Without that, we would be back to an eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth stage, or, more specifically, duels and executions. According to the classic definition of Max Weber, one of the founders of Sociology, the monopoly of coercion, including violence in extreme situations, belongs to the State. And I reinforce that even this ‘legitimate use of physical force is not a blank check, and can (and should) be contested whenever necessary.
Violence does not fit into any social relationship, including consumption.
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