Do you want to know what it can be like to live in Rio de Janeiro? Take a look at this 58 second Youtube video, for a raw, unedited scene from one man's window.
The clip was uploaded this morning and claims to be from a man who hit record when he heard gunfire.
I can not vouch for its authenticity, but I also have no reason to believe it’s fake.
But without question, the bullets were flying in Rio overnight.
A shootout between police and traffickers killed three people.
And not too far away, in a separate incident early this morning, traffickers invaded a rival gang’s shantytown which sparked an intense gun battle.
The popping of gunfire rattled the nerves of people in the nearby upper middle class neighbourhood of Tijuca, where residents were probably jarred out of bed.
One man apparently grabbed and video camera and filmed it and then posted it to Youtube – and that is the video above.
You can’t see much. But this is one case where the audio tells the story.
There is actually much more dramatic, professional shot video of deadly Rio gun battles floating around. But this one has a certain raw edge to it, probably because of the unknown aspect of the darkness.
At the end of the video the amateur cameraman can be heard saying, in Portuguese, the following:
“I want to know what the governor is going to do in relation to this? People are here in Tijuca and can hear this. I want to know what the authorities are going to do? And the commander of the police, who lives on the street where I am, what will he do in relation to this?”
Yes, this is the city that will host the final of the 2014 World Cup. And the 2016 Summer Olympics.
City officials would rather the outside world view Rio like this. And not like this.
They don't want you to see the videos like the one of the gun battle posted on Youtube today.
Because having such an incident in 2014 or 2016 - when thousands of the world’s journalists, athletes and tourists are in the city - is simply a nightmarish scenario for Rio de Janeiro officials.
The man who shot the video doesn't want to wait. He seems to be pleading for the governor and the police to take action now. And he doesn’t say action is needed for the sake of foreign journalists, athletes, or tourists arriving years off in the future. But for the sake of himself. A Brazilian living in Rio.
"Until when are we going to do nothing?" he writes on Youtube.
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