Pánico em São Paulo

I passed the weekend in São José dos Campos... on Satruday night a friend mentioned that there had been some problems in São Paulo... On Sunday (Mother's Day) almost everything was closed, I went to a churrasco all afternoon and then just relaxed durring the evening (and didn't get a chance to read the paper!).
The new week arrived, and it turned out that all of the "problems" that had been brewing in São Paulo culminated on Monday: an organized crime gang, the PCC (Primeiro Comando da Capital) started riots all around the city, and not just in São Paulo, but also São Paulo state (which def. includes São José dos Campos, gulp!) The gangs started burning buses and banks, shooting at police officers and sometimes at random. Everything was shut down throughout São Paulo: buses, metrô, stores, university classes cancelled.
Everything seemed okay until we found out that these things were happening in SJC. I arrived at work and everyone was in a some-what panic state, using the phone to cancel all of our apts. and then everyone was told to go straight home. Rumors were flying: by 2:00 on Monday I heard two banks had been burned (about 10 min walk from my house), two boys were killed on the street and someone had fired shots with a machine gun into both of the malls. I ran home and caught a ride over to my friends' house (where we had a movie-marthon and drank caiparinhas all afternoon, but that's beside the point). On Tuesday we woke up and everything seemed to be back to normal. It turned out that almost all of the news we had heard about SJC was actually false: I think two buses were burned and one bomb exploded: no injuries.
The story is different for São Paulo city: there the riots (which had really strated on Friday night) left over 80 dead, mostly police officers. All of this was a reaction of the PCC, who were protesting for better prison conditions. Earlier several off the leaders (in prison) had been transferred to a higher-security facility... PCC members took to the streets demanding prison reform. On Monday night the government of São Paulo called a cease-fire and decided to negotiate. I discussed what went on with one of my friends who is a lawyer. Apprently Brazil has a huge document which outlines the conditons and rights for prisoners: the problem is is that nothing in this document is acutally used in practice. Even though the population is growing, São Paulo has been using the same facilities without bothering to create more space to hold more prisoners. Many do not even have access to their own beds; instead they tie their hands to the cell above their heads and sleep standing up. I imagine that some of the conditions are so bad it's even beyond what we're able to comprehend.
It's amazing how different everything becomes when something dangerous happens: its completly true that people build their fear off one another, and so when something gets bad, things turn worse even quicker. As for the PCC, everyone has a limit, and when you have nothing else to lose you'll go to extremes to get your voice heard. It was an interesting time to be in Brazil indeed, but don't worry, it doesn't happen (that) often.