Domestic Abuse, Shown Blow by Blow, Shocks Brazil

a women running for her life. In 15 minutes she will be dead

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SÃO PAULO, Brazil — The scenes, captured by security cameras, are gruesome: A man pummels and kicks his wife in the garage of their building. She tries to flee, but he forces her into the elevator. They go up to their fifth-floor apartment.

Less than 20 minutes later, he takes the elevator back down — to fetch her bloody, lifeless body, which had plummeted to the sidewalk below.

The footage from the night of July 22, first broadcast Sunday on the popular television program Fantástico, has been playing repeatedly on national television. The graphic, blow-by-blow view into what domestic violence really looks like is challenging the widespread notion that you shouldn’t “stick a spoon” in marital disputes.

It also set off a nationwide debate about domestic abuse in Brazil, where almost a third of women say they have suffered violence. According to a 2017 nationwide survey, over half of the attackers were current or former partners.

“The video just reflects the levels of violence we have been documenting,” said Maria Laura Canineu, the Brazil director for Human Rights Watch. “What Brazil has to learn is that most of these cases are preventable. It is very rare that a murder is the first case of violence.”

The images also show the man, Luís Felipe Manvailer, trying to wipe blood stains off the elevator walls before driving away just as the police arrived. He was quickly apprehended and is being investigated for the murder of his wife of five years, Tatiane Spitzner. Mr. Manvailer denies the accusations, and he told the police that his wife jumped off the balcony.

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One of the most shocking aspects of the videos is what viewers can’t see: the 15 minutes in which the fighting and beatings are believed to have continued and neighbors reportedly heard desperate screams for help.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/07/world/americas/domestic-abuse-shown-blow-by-blow-shocks-brazil.html

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As the images spread, horrified Brazilians took to Twitter to urge people to intervene to stop domestic violence, posting messages at #metaAcolher, or “stick a spoon in,” a reference to a popular Brazilian saying, “When it’s a fight between husband and wife, don’t stick a spoon in.”

One widely shared Twitter message encouraged readers, “When you hear a call for help, stick a spoon in, call the police, try to prevent another femicide — the killing of girls or women, particularly by a man and on account of gender.”