BETWEEN MULTIPLE IDENTITIES AND CONSOLIDATION AS A POLICE INSTITUTION TODAY: A BRIEF HISTORY OF “POLÍCIA MILITAR DO ESTADO DO RIO DE JANEIRO

Abstract

In this article I present, in a selective and non-linear way, episodes, facts, events and historical characters that have shaped and have shaped a multiple identity constitution in the Rio de Janeiro military police for over two hundred years. I begin with a reflection on the myth of the institution's origin and the remembrance of one of its historical characters. Following, I discuss the use of the police as a military force, materialized through the participation of the “Corpos de Voluntários da Pátria”  in the Paraguayan War. Then I appropriate the conflicts between the police institutions in Rio de Janeiro, referring to the historical roots of institutional conflicts. I address a crucial breaking point in the modern history of PMERJ, referring to the merger of the old states of Rio de Janeiro and Guanabara. For this purpose, I will use as secondary sources, bibliographic references that analyze the PMERJ, others developed institutionally and legislation, as well as interviews conducted in 2019 with officers of the corporation. At the end I conclude with a reflection on the identity construction going through a invention of the traditions of this institution made up of multiple vectors.