BRASILIA: THE VIGÁRIO GERAL MASSACRE

Phil Roberts 1957 (Melbourne)



On August 29, 1993
In the Brazilian town, Vigário Geral,
The police opened fire on the innocent
And to the ground, twenty people fell.

The day before street gangs had killed
Four brutal, sadist, rogue police,
Seeking revenge for their corrupt colleagues
Brazilian cops fired wildly in the streets.

Thirty good, decent people died
So bad police could avenge bent colleagues,
And considering how slow Brazilian justice moves
We wonder if bent judges are also in league.

In twenty-four years no-one has been caught
Not a single bent officer brought to trial,
Though Amnesty International calls for action
The death toll in Brazil continues to spiral.

Justice can move at a snail's pace
In any country in the world, we know,
But in Brazil, it seems to go backward
Any movement at all is so slow.

So with thirty good decent people
Swiftly and brutally mown down,
By corrupt police in squad cars
No justice of any kind has been found.

So good people like Anderson Sa
Can only keep calling for justice,
But with the police the ones who make arrests
Who is there to arrest corrupt police?

Grupo Cultural AfroReggae
Is trying to bring sanity back to Brazil,
For twenty-four years they've used peaceful resistance
Yet rogue police still daily kill.

So for Anderson Sa and Vigário Geral
Let all of us go down on our knees to pray,
Let us pray that the guilty will be tried soon
And that justice is not too far away.

THE END
© Copyright 2021 Philip Roberts
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

About this poem

On August 29, 1993 bent cops opened fire sporadically upon people in Vigario Geral murdering 21 people. To date six cops have been convicted, but only two are in gaol, the other four were released due to Brazil's laughable laws.

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Written on 2009

Submitted by PHIL_ROBERTS on August 06, 2021

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:18 min read
1

Quick analysis:

Scheme XAXA XBCX XCXD XAXA XXXA AXXX XXXB DAXA AEXE XXA
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 1,440
Words 259
Stanzas 10
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 3

Phil Roberts

I turn 65 on the 31st of January 2022. I love cats, rock music, and horror fiction and poetry more…

All Phil Roberts poems | Phil Roberts Books

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