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Rio de Janeiro - Favela Livin'
Video by THIAZ Rio is one of the most violent cities in the world. As of 2007 the homicide rate of the greater metropolitan area stands at nearly 80 victims per week, with the majority of victims falling to homicide, assault, stray bullets or narcoterrorism. In 2001 the murder rate in Rio was 45 for every 100 thousand people and between 1978 and 2000, 49,900 people were killed in Rio. The numbers are comparable with war conflict zones like Baghdad and Kabul. Rio de Janeiro's low paid and ill-equipped police is violent as well. In 2006 the police killed 1,063 people in the state of Rio de Janeiro, 1.195 in 2003 and as of April 2007 the police was killing 3.7 people a day. In comparison the American police killed just 347 people in whole of the USA during 2006. Rio's policeman earns on average only R$ 874 a month or R$ 10.488 (around US$ 5.500) a year. Compounding the problem of violence is impunity. Only 3% of the murders are solved by Rio's police.