Police in Brazil are accused of making “abusive use of lethal force”.  A group that monitors police violence says Brazilian police have killed more than 11,000 people over the past five years – that comes out to about six people killed by police every day.

The Sao Paulo-based Brazilian Forum on Public Safety released a study that says Rio de Janeiro state had the highest per capita rate of killing.  Some 416 people were killed there in 2013.  Overall, Brazilian police killed 11,197 people over the past five years, while law enforcement agents in the United States killed 11,090 people over the past 30 years.

The study also said 50,806 people had been killed in homicides in Brazil last year - an average of about one person every 10 minutes.  The vast majority of the victims were black and more than half were in their late teens or twenties, the report said.