Those paying attention to events in the world right now may be aware that in Brazil, protests in regards to rising transport fares turned violent as police opened fire on the crowd with rubber bullets and tear gas. It’s estimated that around 5,000 people, mostly university students, were at the protest — on its fourth day — and 200 people were detained. The State Governor denies that excess force was used, but those on the receiving end don’t have the same opinion.
As such, two of Sao Paulo’s citizens that you and I are assuredly familiar with — comic masters Fabio Moon and Gabriel Ba — have turned to their blog and comics to respond. Appearing on their blog, Moon and Ba have both put up comics in reaction to the protest and the police reactions, in solidarity and to announce their involvement in future protests. As the blog states,
Last week, we saw our city (São Paulo) become what looked like a war zone, with the extreme violent police response to a public manifestation. Violence calls for more violence, and by the end of a very long thursday night many people were hurt for no good reason, wrongly arrested and terrorized by the police force. Add many acts of vandalism to the mix and suddenly you’ve lost sight of what people were there for in the first place: for their right to complain and express their opinions.
You can view the comics in full at their blog. The brothers will be at continuing the protests today, both to protest and to chronicle the protest as storytellers, and we can only hope that the protests do not again turn violent.
