To be sure, not all Brazilians mourned Franco's death. She was an unrelenting critic of official neglect of blacks, women, homosexuals and the poor. Her strident defence of human rights was pepper spray to the police, whom she frequently called out for rogue behavior, as she did just before her death. Sadly, the gangland-style slaying followed by outbursts of schadenfreude suggest that the pushback was more than rhetorical.

Loading

All indications are that she was killed because she was bothering all the right people. Police are still investigating the hit.

Skeptics have seized on the brutal crime as confirmation that Rio de Janeiro is a lost cause, and the federal intervention intended to rescue Brazil's most storied venue from crime's tightening hold badly flawed.

But the outpouring over Franco - young, black, bisexual and unapologetically political - also underscores something bigger and far more encouraging. Brazilians aren't so much desperately anti-authority or hungry for messianic outsiders as they are anxious for legitimate leaders. That's one reason why headline politicians knew to keep their distance from the streets this week, where young protestors took the lead in turning a eulogy into a revolt.

Tellingly, right-wing presidential hopeful Jair Bolsonaro, whose pro-gun, torture-friendly, anti-establishment rants have galvanised many disgruntled voters, said nothing.

Will the diffuse outbursts of anger that have occasionally shaken Brazil since before the 2014 World Cup finally gain critical mass? Perhaps.