Law Enforcement Working Group

Yesterday, Saturday, the RSO (Regional Security Office) that I work under had a Law Enforcement appreciation day.  Lots of food and beer.  I did not know there were so many Brazilian Law Enforcement groups.  As I mentioned some time ago, you never take pictures of men with automatic weapons unless you ask first.  So for all these pictures, I asked first.  If nothing else, it was a show of respect to them.  Here are a mess of pictures I took. Here is a picture of the Bombeiros, the Firefighters:Here is a picture of me with a group which I had taken because it had women:Here is a picture of the animal trafficking group with samples of animals they had confiscated, or the taxidermy version of them.Here are pictures of the vehicles many rode in on. There was even a police jazz band that played for everyone.… and the food : There were 150 liters of beer to start with.  Since most of the law enforcement were in uniform, they were not allowed to drink alcohol and yet they still ran out of beer.  Here are a couple of ladies who are good friends of mine.  The pretty one in the back I sometimes call “Becca” because she reminds me of my daughter in so many ways, and I have told her that.  The smiling Lady with the hat is Kris, a good friend of mine.The guy in green is unknown.  He photo-bombed my picture, but I let him live because the law enforcement there.  The good man in blue is “Becca’s” husband.  Below is a picture of the Calvary group.  I have not had much dealing with horses and first thing I noticed about these animals, they look like they are pure muscle and sinew.  I could detect no fat on these beautiful animals.Here is a picture of one of the Local Guard supervisors with his daughter.  I like all the guards and get along very well with them.  I don’t know this man’s name so I call him “Amigo”, like I do all of them.There were a group of men that stood around without smiling that I could not tell which group they belonged to, so I didn’t ask to take their picture, but of the 8-10 law enforcement groups I saw represented, the one I didn’t see and was hoping to, was the CHOK group.  I looked on the Internet to determine if that is the correct title but could not find them.  Anytime we have a demonstration at the Consulate, they stand quietly inside the compound waiting for someone to cross the line.  I have never seen them in action, but I am told you do not want to be on the receiving end.  The CHOK is pronounced “Shock”.

… so, if you come to Brazil, behave yourself.

Addendum:

I found the correct acronym for the CHOK is CHOQUE (pronounced Shock) which is the Military SWAT team.  They are very quiet men and do not move around much.

So, again, behave yourself if you come to Brazil.

Another Addendum:

I found out the guys standing around that I didn’t know which group they were with, are Prison Guards.  Some had tattoos on their faces and looked like they deal with the scum of the Earth, the scrapings of the barrel.  I definitely would not want these people, male or female, beating me into submission.

So, behave yourself if you come here.