Confirmed: Landouar Murder Was an Anti-Gay Murder Directly Linked to Gay Pride Parade

In an excellent cover story in Veja São Paulo, satisfyingly entitled "Wild Boys and Cowards", a group of intrepid reporters give the most thorough and in-depth picture yet of the real story behind the wave of attacks and murders by punks and skinheads in the Jardins neighborhood over the last year, as well as horrifying murders and gang attacks in other parts of town. The latest was the brutal stabbing death of a pizzeria counter worker in the Centro neighborhood by a group of punks who demanded a discount on a R$1 slice of pizza and didn't get it.

And the story confirms what was obvious to many of us from day one about the murder of Gregor Erwan Landouar in front of the gay restaurant Ritz in Jardins, hours after the world's largest gay pride parade had ended only blocks away:

With major repercussions, the death of French tourist Gregor Erwan Landouar, stabbed in Jardins on the 10th of June, had a homophobic explanation. The victim had participated in the Gay Pride Parade. "He said in court that he was disgusted when he saw two people of the same sex kissing each other and decided to murder the first person he saw in front of him," said public defender Mauricio Ribeiro Lopes, referring to Genesio Mariuzzi Filho, or "Anthrax", who is being held as the suspect who killed the Frenchman.

So we finally hear what the police didn't want to admit, and from the killer's mouth no less. And it fits with the eyewitness accounts reported early on.

In fact, as the article explains, there is more to this story. There are various skinhead gangs and various punk gangs in São Paulo. The skinheads follow a nationalistic and racist set of beliefs in defense of an extreme sense of order amidst the chaos of Brazilian society. But the punks consider themselves anarchists and rebels, wanting to promote extreme chaos in reaction to whatever it is they find so upsetting about the world around them. And the two sides are at constant war with each other, but the majority of murders appear to happen to innocent people who are unlucky enough to get in their way.

The Veja reporters (Edison Veiga, Fabio Brisolla, Leonardo Genzini and Maria Paola de Salvo), however, make it clear that there is nothing noble or ideological about these murderous kids on either side. They tend to come from middle class backgrounds, and share a burning hatred of gays and dark-skinned people, but are not so much ideological as emotionally unbalanced:

Some of them spout anti-semitism, others patriotism, and there are those that show hate for Nordestinos (people from Northeastern Brazil), blacks, gays. A majority of these mohawks or muscle worshippers, however, little understand the theories they defend. The city is full of police files on punks, skinheads and whatever else that are increasingly involved in preying on people, fights and murders. In this year alone, the actions of these gangs have resulted in the deaths of six people. ...

...With characteristic clothing (skinheads use combat boots, suspenders, camouflage pants; punks wear band t-shirts and torn jeans), they are frequently identified in some parts of the city. They circulate among stores at the Galeria do Rock, around Avenida Paulista, at bars on Avenida 13 de Maio and clubs on Rua Augusta. According to witnesses, the punks behind the latest episode of this urban battle were leaving the nightclub Hangar 110, an alternative hangout in Bom Retiro. "There wasn't a fight inside because I have security and keep everything under control," said the owner, Marco Antônio Badin. "The problem is that these snot-noses confuse anarchy with vagrancy, and protest with violence."

However, there is a weak point. The article points out that the gangs are known to hang out around Bar du Bocage, a very popular gay bar on Rua da Consolação where a huge number of younger gays and lesbians congregate on the sidewalk and in the street on weekends, but this is the only cited reason that the punks or the skinheads come to Jardins. The article fails to point out that the only reason they could be attracted to that area is because of the vulnerability of so many unarmed, young gays and lesbians and transsexuals coming and going from the area. There is nothing else in that immediate area that could be attracting them. John Clayton, who is named in the piece as a murder victim of the Devastação Punk gang, was chased down and stabbed to death early one Friday night less than 100 meters from Bar du Bocage. And Ritz, where Landouar was the unlucky (and heterosexual) victim of homophobic rage, is two blocks below there.

The recent report of arrests made by the Policia Militar of a gang of skinheads on Rua Augusta was good news, but why isn't there an organized, coordinated effort along with the state police force (which is chiefly responsible for criminal enforcement) and the city authorities to visibly protect this neighborhood's gay population? I mean, I stand in solidarity with all the law-abiding residents of this city against all forms of criminal violence, but the skinheads and the punks are not targeting rich old ladies or hand-holding straight couples in Jardins. Let's get real. We have the biggest gay pride parade in the world, but it was so poorly policed this year that the organizers were worried that even basic crowd control was not being observed. What does this all mean? Is anything truly being done to prevent the next murder here?

I hope the media will go deeper, and follow the story to where it needs to go.