The Minister of Justice and Public Security, Ricardo Lewandowski, suspended, for 90 days, the agent of the Federal Highway Police (PRF) of Santa Catarina, Ronaldo Bandeira. The process began after a video in which the police officer was shown teaching how to carry out torture using pepper spray in company vehicles went viral at the end of 2022.
Agent of the Federal Highway Police (PRF) of Santa Catarina, Ronaldo Bandeira – Photo: Reproduction/ND
At the time, the agent was the target of an administrative disciplinary process, in which the PRF even recommended his dismissal from public office, which ended up not being accepted by the minister. On social media, Ronaldo Bandeira celebrated the decision, as he was spared from being expelled from the corporation.
“God be praised. Justice partially done, but done! Despite the suspension and knowing that I am completely innocent. I will soon be back in the role I love most. At this moment, all the weight of the world is lifted off my shoulders… Sleepless nights, prescription medication, agony in my chest, fear, I’m afraid! Only I know what I went through. Even though I knew I wasn’t to blame for anything, God is just and faithful,” he wrote in a sequence of posts on Instagram stories.
To ND Mais, Bandeira stated that he was always dedicated to the institution (PRF) and said he had a clear conscience that he did nothing. “Yes, it was a joking joke in 2016. And that’s it,” he highlighted.
The ordinance that determines the suspension of the police officer, published in a regular edition of the Official Gazette of the Union (DOU) last Monday (22), says that the police officer “committed a disciplinary infraction provided for by the legal regime for civil servants of the Union, which is violation of the duty of loyalty to the Federal Highway Police institution.”
In a note, Bandeira’s defense states that it sought with the Ministry of Justice to “demonstrate the facts as they actually occurred”.
“Our defense was technical, we stuck to the evidence in the case and worked for the acquittal or mitigation of the penalty. We succeeded and remain firm that we defend a good police officer who will continue to serve the institution and the population with honor and dignity”, he concluded.
Remember the PRF case
In the images that went viral on social media, Bandeira taught a class at a course, detailing a police approach. In the video, he talks about an arrest in which the suspect was in the back of the police car.
“What does ‘the policeman’ do? Open it a little, grab the pepper spray and go! The person becomes soft. Then in a little while I just heard: I’m going to die, I’m going to die, then I felt sorry. I opened it like this and said: torture! Damn, I didn’t do that”, he said.
Description resembles the death of a man by the PRF
The images of the agent’s class began to circulate on social media six years after the death of Genivaldo de Jesus Santos – the case is not directly related to Bandeira. The man died of asphyxiation during a PRF approach in Sergipe.
The case had repercussions because the “techniques” taught by the professor resembled those used by the agents involved in the approach of Genivaldo, who was schizophrenic and was approached during a police checkpoint.
After contact with the police, the man was forcibly placed in the trunk of the vehicle where the gas was thrown. The video that began circulating on the internet revealed the screams of the victim, who died inside the vehicle.
