State control of protest and judicial contention in the June demonstrations

• Grant number: 15/07886-0
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Duration: May 01, 2016 - April 30, 2018
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Sociology - Other specific Sociologies
• Principal Investigator: Débora Alves Maciel
• Grantee: Débora Alves Maciel
• Host Institution: Centro Brasileiro de Análise e Planejamento (CEBRAP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The repressive strategies of the Brazilian State to confine the so called June Protests were highlighted mainly through ostensible street policing and criminal prosecutions and trials of protesters by the Justice System. The consistently violent conduct of the police has fueled the spread of demonstrations of support to the activists, as well as it has pushed the mobilization of human rights groups and lawyers networks. The engagement of this type of activism incorporated in the protest agenda the right to public demonstrations and the illegality of police violence, bringing legal and judicial strategies to the repertory of political contention. Brazilian protests came across the circuit of public demonstrations spread in many countries in the early 2000s. International literature on contemporary protests has been trying to understand the simultaneity of the events through the identification of patterns and national singularities between the cases. One of the main research problems at stake is the relation between State control and protest. The project aligns with this research agenda by investigating, in the Brazilian case, the police and protesters action repertoires in the streets and the judicial contention between activists networks and human rights lawyers and State institutions. (AU)