The Brazilian rap artists Racionais MC's sing of society's indifference to those shot by the police. Their words accurately suggest that state violence in Brazil occurs in a social context that is largely indifferent to the deaths of the poor and marginalized. Only the most dramatic and bloody of these events make the news. It is no surprise, then, that they put the police squarely in the trio of ills they would eliminate if they had magical powers: no more drugs, no more hunger, no more police. All three have a deadly effect on the urban poor of Brazil. This chapter relates precisely this story – the dismal failure of an otherwise relatively functional legal system to respond to a violent police force, largely owing to the indifference of the general public. São Paulo presents a clear challenge to the notion that democracy comes all of a piece. Political rights are alive and vibrant in São Paulo, and yet the police routinely violate fundamental civil rights and, in practical terms, remain above the law.