A Case Study in the Power of Brazil's Corrupt Cops Monday, June 12, 2000 A Case Study in the Power of Brazil's Corrupt Cops The official who sought to reform the force in Rio de Janeiro state is now living in exile in New York.By SEBASTIAN ROTELLA, Times Staff Writer -------------FOTO--------------- Luiz Eduardo Soares, shown in New York City, accuses Rio's governor of dropping reform efforts in favor of political ambitions. CARMEN MENDEZ/For The Times____________________________ NEW YORK--A cold spring rain blows through the high-rise canyons, making Luiz Eduardo Soares feel even farther from Rio de Janeiro. Shoulders hunched in his leather jacket, the bearded 46-year-old Brazilian walks the streets hunting for an apartment, rebuilding his life in the anonymity of exile. After 15 months leading Brazil's most ambitious attempt at police reform in memory, he once again has time to read, write and reflect. Soares remains first and foremost a scholar, despite his explosive accusations against fellow police officials in Rio and his harrowing clandestine departure from Brazil in March. He has written eight books and has degrees in anthropology, sociology, political science and philosophy. When he recounts his odyssey of death threats, wiretapped phones and 30 bodyguards protecting him from his own officers, he sounds like a philosopher-cop. He quotes Holocaust survivor and novelist Primo Levi on "the terror of uncertainty" to explain why some inhabitants of Rio's slums prefer drug lords to marauding police. He describes the nightmarish station-house bureaucracy like this: "If Hegel had been a Brazilian policeman, he would have never achieved synthesis. He would still be lost in the endless labyrinth of procedures." Like many left-leaning Brazilian intellectuals, Soares has dedicated his talents to questions of crime and justice. In a region where violence and impunity are endemic, the political challenge is reforming renegade police forces whose power poses a threat to democracy much as the Latin American militaries of decades past did. "When we talk about changing the police, we are talking about the future of democracy itself," Soares said in a recent interview in a restaurant in Manhattan. In late 1998, Gov. Anthony Garotinho, a charismatic young politician with presidential aspirations, made Soares his point man on justice issues in the state of Rio de Janeiro. Soares was to deliver on Garotinho's major campaign promise: a law enforcement policy that would be progressive and aggressive. The moment seemed right: a popular politician, a top-notch brain trust, a crime rate that had dipped enough to open a window for change. In a sadly familiar denouement, however, Soares now accuses the governor of allying himself with a gangster cabal of police commanders known as "the Rotten Bunch." The governor, who denies the allegations, fired Soares as state public security coordinator in March. "At first, Garotinho wanted to support the reforms as a whole," Soares said. "But then he realized the best thing would be to have all the projects in place but not go forward on them to avoid confrontations with the police. His obsession was to be the next president. Everything would have to be subordinate