Broken Justice

Chapter 4

Felipe sat forlornly next to his three friends on the floor of the small convenience store. The owner of the store covered them with a small pistol as he called the police from his cell phone. The four of them had been caught while attempting to steal various items from the store. These objects were now on the checkout counter, and amongst the items of food were four tubes of glue.

Drug addiction was a major problem amongst the street children of Sao Paulo and usually started with glue-sniffing. As the kids grew older and managed to get their hands on more money, they turned to heavier drugs such as crack cocaine and heroin.

At thirteen years of age, Felipe was the oldest and therefore the leader of the small group. Isabela was twelve while Lucas and Gabriela were only eleven years old. They stuck together for protection and were part of a much larger gang of about thirty kids, all roughly in the same age group. The streets of the huge city were a tough place to grow up and those who didn’t belong to a gang did not last long.

Isabela was Felipe’s girlfriend and they’d been sleeping together for almost a year now. Lucas and Gabriela were brother and sister and they’d been on the streets for over two years. The twins’ parents had died in a bus accident, and with no other family to take care of them, they’d had no choice. Gabriela was still a virgin, no mean feat on the rough streets where most girls started having s*x as young as nine years old.

None of them was really scared, as they had all been arrested numerous times before. They were more disappointed that they wouldn’t be achieving a mind-numbing high from sniffing the glue. They all knew that they’d be back on the streets within a day or two.

The impatient store owner waited about half an hour and was about to release the four kids when the police finally arrived. They took his statement and bagged the evidence before bundling the four kids into the back of the police van.

Instead of heading downtown to the holding cells, the cops drove to a large industrial area on the outskirts of the city. Once they reached their destination, the cop in the passenger seat jumped out and opened the roll-up door at the rear of the warehouse. The driver drove into the large warehouse and his partner closed the door behind him.

* * *

Felipe was surprised when the rear doors of the van clanged open. Expecting to see the parking lot of a police station, he realized that they were inside a large dusty, empty building. Well, it wasn’t totally empty, towards the rear of the warehouse was a large cage occupied by three frightened-looking children. There were two girls and a boy whom he immediately recognized as members of a rival gang.

An icy fear gripped his chest. He’d heard the rumors of street kids being arrested, never to be seen or heard from again. The two cops herded him and his three companions towards the cage. As they approached it, a side door opened and three mean-looking men entered and greeted the policemen. They spoke rapidly in English which Felipe had a hard time following. Besides his native Portuguese, he only had a basic understanding of English.

He immediately recognized the three newcomers as Arabs. There was a large Arab population in Sao Paulo and the street kids knew better than to mess with them. If you robbed an Arab-owned business and were caught, chances were they wouldn’t call the cops but handle the situation themselves. That meant a severe beating with no broken bones only if you were extremely lucky.

One of the three Arab men motioned towards Isabela and the other two grabbed her arms and lifted her onto a table positioned near the cage. They held her down as the third man pulled down her panties. Fearing that they were going to r**e her, Felipe made a move towards the table. The two cops immediately shouted at him in Portuguese to stop and trained their weapons on him.

The third man completed his examination of Isabela and shook his head at the cops. They looked disappointed and pointed towards Gabriela. Isabela was released and the same procedure was followed with the terrified younger girl. This time the man completed his examination and nodded at the two policemen. Their faces broke into wide smiles and one of them approached the third man, who retrieved a bundle of bank notes from his pocket. He counted out a number of the notes, which he handed to the cop.

He returned to the van and jumped into the driver’s seat, motioning to his partner to open the roll-up door. He quickly complied and they drove off, leaving the warehouse quiet, save for Gabriela’s sobbing.

Two of the men produced firearms while the third one unlocked the cage door. He indicated to the two girls and Lucas that they must enter the cage. They did so with much trepidation and Felipe followed close behind. One of the armed men motioned for him to stop and the cage door was shut and locked behind Felipe’s compatriots.

Now the two men turned towards him and Felipe felt a paralyzing fear as they both pointed their pistols at him. Being a street kid, he wasn’t naïve; he knew that his time had finally come. In a final, desperate gamble, he spun on his heel and darted towards the small side door.

He heard the crack of the pistols and felt a searing pain in his back. His legs refused to work and he fell face-first onto the dusty cement floor. He heard his beloved Isabela screaming and suddenly everything just went dark.