Weekend Diversion: Night Of The Ponies
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Around Town
Red-Light Cameras Not So Special?
We're three weeks removed from the awarding of the 2016 Summer Olympics to Rio over Tokyo, Madrid, and, yes, Chicago. But in the weeks since the announcement, while we in Chicago have been focused on figuring out what went wrong, Rio has been dealing with another problem: a continued string of high-profile violence. Last weekend, a police helicopter was shot down in a gun battle between police and gangs. Already dealing with one of the highest murder rates in the world, 29 people have been killed since this past weekend. Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said, “I need to clean the filth that drug traffickers impose on Brazil," and Sérgio Cabral, Rio’s governor, added, “We want to get to 2016 with a Rio de Janeiro in peace before, during and after the Games."
Leading into the October 2nd vote, one of the more visceral images of violence for the candidate cities was video of the South Side brawl that left Chicago teenager Derrion Albert dead. In the wake of the vote, that image has been replaced by those above from the firefights in Rio between police and gangs. Will this recent outbreak of violence have any effect on the Olympics? Rodrigo Pimentel, a former police captain in the special operations unit of Rio’s Military Police, told the NY Times, “Let’s be honest. One more helicopter that falls down in Rio de Janeiro or another slum invasion could seriously raise the chances of the Olympics and World Cup pulling out of Brazil.” Does this mean Chicago could be back in the running for 2016? It's extremely doubtful. Given the fanfare that was made over Rio being the first South American city to be awarded the Olympics, re-awarding the bid would be as embarrassing for the IOC as for Rio.
And time is on Rio's side: there are seven years left until the Olympics and other Olympics cities have experienced violent outbursts. The 2005 terrorist bombings in London came just one day after that city was awarded the 2012 games. With the re-commitment from Rio and Brazil's leaders, it could lead to a shift in focus on the city's build-up to the Games with a primary focus on security and, in a best case scenario, leaving the city with a legacy of lower crime and better safety. But a worst case scenario - a continued escalation of crime - could leave government and IOC officials sweating as the Games approach.
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There are 7 more years before the Olympics in Rio. We sound like Bitter Bettys with all these Crime in Rio stories. Crime in Rio is nothing new and hopefully, their government will have a handle on some of it before the Olympics.
If anything, the 2010 World Cup in South Africa will be more interesting.
If it gets close to the opening ceremonies deadline and there's still trouble, Rio cops will just blow up the entire ghetto. They're kinda impulsive like that.
According to the NYT article, the helicopter was shot down a mile from the stadium where the opening ceremonies will be held.
"Bus 174"
Nice. I was thinking of City of God myself (book and film)
The IOC were a bunch of Eurotrash con artists who had no intention of voting for Chicago while they sucked up champagne and caviar that we paid for. Rio will simply reactivate their old death squads from the 80's and hope at least parts of the city will be safe for tourists by the World Cup. All in all, this should make for a rip-roaring entertaining Olympics in 2016.
I kind of agree. They're going to exploit the poverty there. Kind of makes me sick.
Are people missing something? They shot down a freaking helicopter!
There was a piece in the New Yorker a couple weeks ago that highlighted the violence in Rio's favelas. Police dont have much actual authority there compared to the gangs, the favelas are basically a rogue world of their own. It will take a lot longer than 7 years for that to change.
It doesn't have to change. I offer that in Rio's budget there is most likely an allowance to buy reasonable peace from the gangs for the duration of the games. This flareup is only news in light of the 2016 announcement. No matter what happens leading up to or during the games, it will make for exciting TV (or whatever we're watching in 7 years). You can be damn sure the broadcasters will reference Munich every chance they get.
Have a Brazilian acquaintance who says that all the tourist areas of Rio are pretty safe, and I would presume that's where most of the events will be.
Yeah, but from what I've seen and heard, some of those gang guys are pretty bold and ruthless and I can see them venturing close to the tourist area, snapping up some unsuspecting German/Australian/Whatever and demanding a ransom. The documentary/movie I mentioned above, Bus 174, took place in the neighborhood of Jardim Botânico, considered a upper middleclass/upperclass neighborhood.
that said, i'm still glad the olympics aren't going to be here!
People were rooting for Rio to host in 2016 because they really need the economic upswing. The Olympics will be great opportunity for many citizens to improve themselves and their city. Best of luck!
Some are now saying that Rio is not a good choice because of all this violence. Where was all of this coverage when they (conservative media) were smearing Chicago? Although I wasn't 100% in favor of hosting the 2016 Olympics, I didn't appreciate all of the negative images associated with our great city, some outlets suggested Chicago is WORSE than Rio. What a joke. http://tinyurl.com/yhd4dyj