Jails don’t have room service

It is pretty much universally accepted that committing a crime usually leads to arrest. And in Brazil, this is also valid — even though people committing crimes seem to ignore or forget it. 

This week’s text is a tale of hypocrisy involving radical supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro and Brazil’s security procedures. To recap, on January 8, violent far-right groups supporting the ex-head of state stormed public buildings in Brasília, in a more-than-symbolic gesture against democracy. 

As if they were trying to give life to their anti-democratic sentiments, these self-declared “patriots” became… terrorists. They ransacked the seats of Brazil’s three branches of government, including the Supreme Court and the Planalto Palace, the president’s official workplace. Luckily, institutions were in recess, the buildings were largely empty, and no one got hurt. 

Despite suspiciously inefficient security to contain the furious rioters during those dark hours in the capital (which even led to the arrest of security chiefs), the attackers have started being arrested for what they did — which was an easy task in some cases, considering that many weren’t ashamed of showing their faces. 

In the eyes of Bolsonaro supporters, who were (at least until this month) reportedly passionate about law and order, people who commit crimes are not deserving of having their human rights respected. They even once coined the expression “human rights for righteous people,” as if criminals were less than nothing. 

But now that they are being submitted to the usual procedures of being arrested for a crime, they complain that they are being taken against their will, that the food is bad, and that the state can’t just grab someone and put them behind bars. 

Well, Bolsonarists, that’s how being arrested works. Consider not committing a crime next time. 

• Read more: Post-riot arrests in Brasília in the thousands already

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