On April 10, a trans gendered Brazilian woman named Veronica Bolina, was brutally beaten by Brazilian police. Evidently, Veronica had been attempting to murder her elderly neighbor when police came to arrest her. She was beaten so badly by the police that her face was apparently unrecognizable.
"Reports say police arrested the transgender woman for attempting to murder her elderly neighbor before they proceeded to badly beat her at the time of arrest."
This violent beating sparked a social media movement. The movement has been named "We are all Veronica" and Brazilians have been posting drawings of Veronica before and after the beating to make others aware of the police brutality she underwent.
"A Facebook page of the same name has even started sharing artwork inspired by Veronica´s photos before and after the attack. The most popular artwork is a black and white drawing by Vitor Teixeira."
Brazilians believe that the police force had little respect for Veronica as a woman and didn't handle the situation the way it should have been handled.
“Those photos were shocking because of the violence, and [because] the police didn’t respect her gender identity,” said Alessandra Ramos, an LGBT activist in Brazil who says she has been detained by police before. “A trans woman was not respected. That brought rage into LGBT activism.”
According to Ramos, she too has been detained by the police before. She believes the politics of the country are very disrespectful of transgendered females.
However, apparently Bolina had given an audio confession that she wasn't in fact beaten by the Brazilian police.
"Police also gave an audio confession by the transgender woman where she states that she was not tortured by cops."
Although it is unclear who was in the right or wrong in this situation, it is clear that social media plays a key role in Brazil. The people of Brazil found it important to take to social media to get this story out and show how they feel about what had happened. These pictures were posted from people around the country who felt strongly on justice for Veronica Bolina.
http://www.latinpost.com/articles/48875/20150421/transgender-woman-beaten-police-brazil.htm
http://fusion.net/story/122413/photo-of-trans-woman-beaten-by-police-goes-viral-in-brazil/