Amnesty International: Rio de Janeiro police kill with impunity

Rio de Janeiro’s police force operates with “total impunity,” targeting mostly young, mostly black and mostly poor people, in the Olympic city’s violent slums, for extrajudicial executions, Amnesty International alleged in a report.

The group accuses Rio’s police of wielding an “unnecessary and disproportional use of force” and suggests racism has institutionalised killings by police.

It also says police cover up executions, either by labelling them “resistance killings”, in which victims allegedly die in gun battles with officers, or by planting weapons on corpses.