Brazilian Crime

I found an interesting series of small articles about recent crime occuring in Brasil.
http://www.worldtravelwatch.com/archives/south-america/brazil/

Inparticularly interesting is the following article..

´´An American and a Czech tourist on Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro escaped a scam when two police officers from a special unit designed to help tourists tried to extort money from them. The men were sitting at a beach kiosk bar when a passer-by gave them a pack of leaflets. Two policemen immediately swept in and said there were drugs in the pack and threatened to arrest them unless they paid a fine. The men turned over $260, but the cops wanted more so accompanied them to their hotel. The men alerted hotel guards when they arrived, who called police. Moments later the two scammers were arrested at the hotel.´´

...which is indicative of the corrupted police force that is suppose to protect all within the boarders of Brasil.  However the light that shines in Brazil is in the following article..
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/699091.stm
..which talks about the vigorous and unforgiving attitude of Brazils media.  While corrupted politicians and cops continue to grow in numbers, the media here shows no signs of letting them pass in the dark.  After reading this article I´ve become more concerned with Bush´s disbanding of PBS.
http://www.pbs.org/news/