Brazil Police Teargases Protesters Rallying Against Black Man’s Beating Death

By Staff, Agencies

Police in Brazil resorted to the use of tear gas and rubber bullets to break up a protest rally against the beating death of a black man by white security guards outside of a supermarket chain store.

The Monday night protest was the latest of several days of rallies in the southern Brazilian city of Porto Alegre after video footage on social media showed security guards at Carrefour Brasil’s branch in the city beating the 40-year-old welder Joao Alberto Silveira Freitas to death.

During the march on Monday, protesters occupied a street and interrupted traffic in front of the Carrefour Brasil’s branch in the city.

Some participants also threw stones and fireworks at police officers, who dispersed the group using tear gas and rubber bullets, according to witnesses.

The killing triggered Black Lives Matter protest rallies in major Brazilian cities on Friday, with hundreds of protesters gathering at the store in Porto Alegre. The demonstration turned into rioting as some protesters engaged in destroying windows and cars and setting fires.

Carrefour Brasil — the local unit of France’s Carrefour supermarket chain — has also faced a wave of boycott calls, drawing comparisons with the killing of African American George Floyd in the United States back in May, which also led to massive protests against police brutality throughout the country.

The killing also led to the tumbling of the company’s share price by six percent during Monday afternoon trading on Brazil’s Bovespa benchmark stock exchange index, marking the biggest loss of the day in the stock market.