são paulo

There's crazy gang violence going on in São Paulo right now - you may have heard about it. A criminal gang based in the jails is apparently protesting the transfer of 700-some prisoners, which is part of the government's strategy for breaking up such gangs. So for four days they've been killing police and civilians and burning buses and banks. They say this is all being coordinated from inside jails, on smuggled cell phones. I just IM'd with my friend who's a reporter at one of the big newspapers. He says it's scary but the panic is probably out of proportion, and exactly what the criminals want. Some schools and businesses have closed. But at the same time, he says, there's no point in having people stuck at work, worrying about their children.

So, I guess this is why I don't want to live in São Paulo. I'd just been thinking the other day about how it would be kind of nice....