This article argues that much police violence the world over, focusing specifically on Brazil, is becoming increasingly invisible in spite of the very public nature of police homicides. Ideologies about race and criminality hide killings of Blacks under the belief that these murders are in response to some groups 'greater criminality'. Police organization-particularly militarized assaults on favelas-frame such violence as a 'war against crime' where criminals out number 'good' police and citizens. The continuing blending of 'formal' and 'private' policing makes it difficult to determine which social control entity carried out a citizen murder, especially given the participation of on- and off-duty police in 'private' police duty. In the process, "security" has developed as a commodity that distinguishes the poor from the rich and separates criminals from non-criminals-those who must rely on formal police for 'security', the poor, are perceived as criminals to be controlled; those who can purchase private security, the wealthier, use private police to protect them against those victimized by public security.
police violence; police trends; militarization; privatization; state control crisis