Esteemed Brazil:

(Police, Army, Militias)

There were less blatant ways to kill Marielle Franco.

Foremost being before her African ancestors made their captured voyage to shore,

they could have simply jumped ship into the depths of the Atlantic as seaweed carcasses,

and her seed would have never settled in your soil.

Or her forebears could have been the first to rebel like Haiti and world capital and

empire could have slowly sanctioned her off, starved her and blamed her for her own

hunger.

In our times you might have choked her father for trespassing on any public street and

left her whirling to organize protest against his murder only to die breathless with no

beating heart.

You might have given her child a plastic gun to play with in a park and rushed in

annihilating both her and her offspring.

Finally, you could have stopped her car for a traffic violation, hauled her to jail to accuse

the accused of hanging herself.

Instead Marielle Franco was shot while driving Black, assassinated along with her driver

Anderson Pedro Gomes.

Her only defense the votes that made her a Council Member.  Her voice that rallied

against racism, oppression, and injustice. Her mind that analyzed and made

connections.

Brazen Brazil:

(Police, Army, Militias)

Our Loss.

Your kill.