In order to measure the civility of a city, check its sidewalks; to do so for a country, search for the number of pedestrians killed.
Gilberto Dimenstein
gdimen@ uol.com.br
Brazilian journalist attending the Harvard University, in "O crime das mortes evitáveis" (The avoidable deaths crime), today, Folha de S.Paulo (Folha.com). This English version by Mariangela Pedro, editor of this blog and also the author of the text below.
The question of the week, 'Did the nutrucionist have the intention to kill?'
First of all, we ought to realize that 'intention' in legal context is not the same as in daily context. Also, there is another aspect to take into account when law is concerned: one can kill with or without premeditation. Again, this is another factor.
Lay people wronglly take premeditation and intention as the same.
Considering the death of the 24.year-old run over in the sidewalk by a speedy nutricionist 'slightly' under alcohol while on the wheels, we can say she did not premeditated the murder, she did not know the young man would be there, so forth.
However, 'intention to kill' is rightly proposed by the police.
Don't agree? Let's see:
Argue with your boyfriend that is clearly drunk and wants to drive. Win him over and, once in charge, drive past a twist, narrow street with such hunger as if you attempted to impede a take-off and save your rare blue parrot (in Rio or not? irrelevant. The parrot is key; after all, you love him more than anything else...)
Then lose control of a heavy car you knew you were not familiar with.
Kill a brilliant young man, refuse to pass through the 'bafômetro' (alcohol effect test by checking the breath) and do not help the victim.
In sum, NOTHING to AVOID the death is to be found in the situation. To the contrary.
Got it? Most people should take the opportunity to seriously think about how 'good-intended' they judge themselves to be when it would not be exactly the case. I very often witness one situation or another which indicates that people are reckless pretending they are not: they cause at least little hurt - but whatsoever they do - while running their shopping trolleys, walking their pets, moving on a bus or the underground. In São Paulo it is a rule: people pass through regardless of the presence of the other one and then, indifferently, uter 'sorry'. Here I never see people asking 'excuse me' before they pass. This is also the rule with employees in the largest supermarket chain, while they push extremely heavy trolleys along the aisles customers shop.
Undoubtfully, we have grown indifferent. The nutricionist that has run over the young man in a nice neighborhood in Sao Paulo was mostly likely concerned about herself when fought with her mate over who should drive, and seems to have been overconfident about her kills, especially since she was not to drive that sort of car - a Land Rover - on a regular basis.
In sum, most of us do not premeditate crimes but, definitely, most of us do act as potential criminals - and that should be worth of headlines so as to try to arise awareness. Legally speaking, once one acts as a potential criminal, s/he has intention to commit a crime.
Other potential criminal acts virtually no one would recognize as such:
Throwing children up in the air, to catch - hopefully - them back in one's hands. Decades ago, a very popular TV presenter lost his grandchild in a miss while 'playing' like that.
Taking children in the car without a security belt. My first child - 30-year-old today - always wore one. Always.
Taking a young child on the lap in the front seat of the car.
Let children eat popcorn or the like while being driven.
Put a child into a shopping trolley along with the shopping goods and/or poorly assisted - since you are distracted focusing on shopping.
Let children go loose in sidewalks and then just shout, 'Stoooopp, sstooooppp'. No matter how desperate you shout, that will not make the child stop. And you know that...
MUBE - The Brazilian Museum of Sculpture - has a lake where young children can easily fall into. It is totally unprotected - it is not deep. Still, on the other side the ground level goes high and there is an iron fence around the gap that... does not give proper protection. A young child passes through the fence with no difficult. Falling from that height will hurt. I sent an email to the museum many months ago, demanding immediate action. Got no reply. No measure was taken at all.
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