According to na article published by The New York Times, some N.F.L. players said they did not want to go to Brazil for the Philadelphia Eagles’ game against the Green Bay Packers at the Corinthians Arena in São Paulo, held last Friday (6). The reason? Violence in Brazil.
Philadelphia Eagles player Darius Slay, on his podcast the week before the game, said, “We’ve been told not to leave the hotel,” he continued. “The crime rate is crazy. You know what I’m saying? I’m like, N.F.L., why do you want to send us somewhere with such a high crime rate?”
Slay wasn’t the only player concerned. AJ Brown, a fellow player, told reporters he planned to stay in his hotel room after his team’s management gave the players a long list of “don’ts” in Brazil. The list included something “as simple as walking down the street with your phone in your hand.”
But what they forgot to tell them, the Times reported, is that the city where they play, Philadelphia, has more murders than in São Paulo.
According to the NYT, last year, São Paulo recorded 4.2 murders per 100,000 inhabitants, one of the lowest rates in Brazil. In Philadelphia, the homicide rate was six times higher, at 26.1 per 100,000 inhabitants, which even surpassed the homicide rate of 23.1 for the whole country. The rates are from the Homicide Monitor, a database of government statistics from the Igarapé Institute, a research institute that studies security.
And the NYT also notes that it’s not just Philadelphia. Most cities with N.F.L. teams had higher homicide rates than São Paulo, including: New Orleans, Baltimore, Cleveland, Detroit, Washington, Kansas City, Cincinnati, Atlanta, Indianapolis, Chicago, Minneapolis, Dallas, Buffalo, Houston, Nashville and Jacksonville.
Even New York, one of the safest major cities in the United States, had a slightly higher per capita homicide rate than São Paulo, according to the report.
Tanner McKee, one of the Eagle players who spent two years in Brazil in a missionary project, gave a statement that clarifies the controversy: “We are in a country where many of them have never been, do not speak the language, and do not know anything about Brazil.”
That’s it! People who do not know Brazil have a wrong perception of the country. Is Brazil violent? Without a doubt! Does it have much higher rates of violence than many other countries? Of course it does! But the largest country in Latin America is not the jungle that many imagine.
The NYT highlighted a fact in its article that explains people’s misperception:
“Crime comes in many forms, and Brazilian cities have a notorious problem with phone theft. Young people from poorer neighborhoods often travel to wealthier areas to steal phones from people’s hands or pockets. Last year, there were 1,782 such thefts for every 100,000 residents in São Paulo.”
“Philadelphia and other U.S. cities do not release specific data on phone theft, but the numbers are likely much lower. Philadelphia, for example, had 367 reported robberies or thefts of any kind per 100,000 people last year.”
The newspaper points out that these thefts in Brazil fuel the perception, including among Brazilians themselves, that crime in general is worse than it is. And it leaves the impression that Brazil is a dangerous place to visit.
Source: The New York Times