Colonel Nazareth Cerqueira Lives On

"It is not possible to police and prevent crime without help from the community. This new philosophy has much to do with the issue of policing in a democratic society: police work that is integrated with the community, geared toward public service and protect people from criminal threats or attacks. That's the philosophy we want to convey through all forms of policing. "


While this statement reflects the current discourse of public security authorities in Rio de Janeiro, it was actually issued in 1992 by the then-commanding general of the Military Police of Rio de Janeiro State, Colonel Carlos Magno Nazareth Cerqueira, the first black commander Military Police in Brazil.

Trained in philosophy and psychology, in his two terms in the command of the PM—from 1982 to 1986 and from 1990 to 1994—during the administrations of Leonel Brizola, Cerqueira helped to guide the transformation of the Military Police into citizen police force.
A humanist intellectual and early advocate of human rights, he was shot in the eye and killed in 1999 at age 59 in an unsolved assassination.

To promote the ideals and legacy of Colonel Nazareth Cerqueira, today more relevant than ever, the Center for Brazilian Identity and Contemporary History at the State University of Rio de Janeiro launched the book "The Dream of a Citizen Police: Colonel Carlos Magno Nazareth Cerqueira". The book is an anthology of his writings and statements from friends and colleagues.

The publication was put together by Ana Beatriz Leal, coordinator of the Center for Strategic Affairs of the State Civil Police of Rio de Janeiro, Lt. Col. PM Ibis Silva Pereira, Petrópolis Battalion Commander and Professor of Modern and Contemporary History at the University State of Rio de Janeiro, Oswaldo Munteal.

Ana Beatriz Leal (pictured), refers to the colonel as the "...greatest intellectual in Brazilian policing theory" and regrets that he remains largely misunderstood and unknown. "Colonel Cerqueira is guiding light," she says. Undersecretary of Planning in the Ministry of State Security (SESEG) Roberto Sá said Colonel Cerqueira's ideas of community policing are what the current administration uses to teach police officers.

"The UPP is not a new idea. It has been refined to become an institutional state policy," he says. Sá admits that as a young military officer, he did not always understand Cerqueira's ideas. "Today I see that he was a visionary and that if his ideas had been implemented at that time, things would be very different today," he says. The subscretary describes the police as Cerqueira imagined it as not having a war mentality and using force against aggression. "[As Cerqueira imagined it, the police is supposed to] defend the citizen and not view the citizen as an opponent, or a crowd to be dispersed, " he says. He also said this outlook would be necessary to rescue of police credibility.

The commander of the College of the PM, Antonio Carlos Carballo Blanco, said that while Colonel Cerequeira's concepts were not well understood at the time, they have stood the test of time. "His ideas were a watershed between the old thinking on policing and how public safety is understood today. Before him, policing manuals were removed from reality and the day-to-day challenges of police," he said. According to Carballo, Cerqueira dedicated his career to introducing society to the true meaning of a citizen police, whose purpose is to save lives and preserve civil rights. "The current policy is turning the dream of citizen police into a reality," said Carballo, who regards Cerqueira as his idol for opening horizons and implement new concepts.

The author of the book presentation, professor of communication at the PUC and the State University of Rio de Janeiro, Adair Rocha, said Col. Cerqueira anticipated possibility of having a police aware of the role of how to treat people and how they should be treated.

Vivian Zampa, a historian, discussed the colonel's path to overcoming obstacles, mainly in relation to racial prejudice. She said that in his administration, the police adopted a new attitude towards blacks and the general population, eliminating unnecessary raids and developing new approaches to managing staff.

Professor Carlos Henrique Aguiar Serra, who reviewed the book and is member of the graduate program in Political Science from the Federal Fluminense University (UFF), said Cerqueira was the most important military police officer of the last century. "He was a brilliant black officer who put into practice his ideas of citizen police, under the rule of law. He turned away from the hegemonic paradigm of warfare. He was not afraid to stand up to those in power. For him the 'other' was not the enemy but simply 'the other," he said.

For his part, Professor Munteal Oswaldo Filho, an organizer of the publication, noted the complexity bringing a sense of civic duty to bring enforcement agencies. In an open criticism film Tropa de Elite, which he accused of glorifying violence, he said the colonel Cerqueira was a man linked to the aesthetics of peace, not violence. Munteal said that Cerqueira's condemnation of indiscriminate violence is relevant today, "The dichotomy of war and peace can not continue. The book is not against anyone; it's in favor of peace. Bringing back Cerqueira is to restore the aesthetics of beauty."

According to Munteal, other points highlighted in Cerqueira's work are: attempting to implement order within the police, humanizing the police force, to bring closer to the police force. "Cerqueira was victimized by cowardice, intolerance, taken down by treachery, "he says.

According to Margarida Pressburguer, president of the Commission on Human Rights and Legal Assistance of the Order of Lawyers of Brazil, when Col. Cerqueira commanded the military police, the police was a citizen's group that did not use violence. "There's always one bad apple, but he had integrity. And he paid for his bravery with his life. Not everyone can bear to see the truth exposed, and some people react violently. His murder was one of the greatest acts of cowardice in the history of Rio de Janeiro," she lamented.

Translated by Danielle Renwick