Pictures of the Year: A Picture and its Story
A police officer takes position during an operation against drug dealers in the Jacarezinho slum in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil May 6, 2021. Reuters photographer Ricardo Moraes: "Silent empty streets, that was how I found the Jacarezinho slum when I arrived to cover a police operation that would end in 28 deaths, the most lethal in the history of Rio de Janeiro. With shops closed and without the normal unrelenting movement of people and motorcycles, the tension showed. After walking around the community for a couple of hours without finding much to photograph, I considered giving up. I continued circling and came across a group of police officers making an incursion through the empty alleys of the favela. Taking photos carefully, little by little, so as to avoid them making me leave, I followed them through the streets. By this point the operation had been going on for hours and as the sound of shooting stopped, locals slowly began going back to their daily life and businesses started to reopen. The territory's control by drug dealers means that the favela of Jacarezinho, and the workers and families who live here, are used to enduring bouts of violence on a daily basis, and this day was no different. At times, cameras can cause more uproar than police guns. The police, still at work, progressed through the alleys, pointing their guns in all directions. I passed by two bars where people watched the news or chatted in the street. When the police officers ran past with their weapons, residents showed no reaction. They talked, laughed and joked among themselves, while the tense officers searched for members of a gang. By the end of the day, 28 people had been killed, including a police officer." REUTERS/Ricardo Moraes/File Photo SEARCH "POY STORIES 2021" FOR THIS STORY. SEARCH "WIDER IMAGE" FOR ALL STORIES TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY
