Thread by @NOlympicsLA

Three years ago today the 2016 Rio Olympics began, representing a colossal human rights disaster that ultimately exposed years of violent Olympic gentrification, militarization, displacement, and grift to the world.

#NOlympicsAnywhere

The media made a huge deal out of the white elephants, but it was so much more than that.

The 2016 Olympics were an ethnic cleansing project.

We have a section on our website devoted to the subject of Rio 2016 where you can read about the spike in arrests, police killings, militarization, and the 77,000 people who were violently dispossessed of their homes to make way for real estate projects:

nolympicsla.com/resources/#rio

This destruction in the name of mega-events has been cataloged by community outlets like @RioOnWatch, who have helped elevate the stories of those who were most effected by this grotesque land-grab.

rioonwatch.org

@RioOnWatch One of the most powerful stories to emerge from Rio 2016 comes from Vila Autódromo, a low-income community whose residents have been staunchly opposing displacement for years.

rioonwatch.org/?p=51419

@RioOnWatch There's a lot we can learn from Rio 2016, but perhaps the most important thing is this:

Rio was not an aberration.

The policing, evictions, and gross corruption were not "mistakes." These were fully intentional, just like every Olympics.

@RioOnWatch Members of Vila Autódromo recently sent us a message about how they've fought for the right of 20 families stay in their community through tenant-led struggle.

#NOlympicsAnywhere

@RioOnWatch Ever since we've started this campaign, we've heard #LA2028 boosters like @JoeBuscaino claim that "LA is not Rio," which is a gross racist dogwhistle towards the Global South.

@RioOnWatch @JoeBuscaino Everything that happened in Rio - brutal policing, displacement, and diversion of crucial civic resources - also happened in London 2012, Vancouver 2010, Atlanta 1996, Los Angeles 1984, Seoul 1988.

@RioOnWatch @JoeBuscaino However, ever since the lead up to Rio, the IOC have found it increasingly difficult to find host cities and are now boxed into a corner of historic unpopularity.

@RioOnWatch @JoeBuscaino The IOC is desperate and shook.

In many ways you can thank Rio's favela residents, organizers, and community journalists in Rio for where we are today: building power across borders and cultures to fight capital and reclaim our cities.

#NOlympicsAnyhere

@RioOnWatch @JoeBuscaino It's worth adding that Eric Garcetti was recently on a local news show and was asked about our work.

He predictably dismissed our concerns over policing + displacement (while boasting about the Ingelwood stadium, which - LOL), but what he said about Rio 2016 is super telling.

@RioOnWatch @JoeBuscaino Eric Garcetti:

"I hope [the Olympics is] one of the last refuges where politics doesn't matter. I remember being at the Rio Olympics and I was told the North Korean and South Korean athletes every morning sat together and ate together. Because no one told them they couldn't..."

@RioOnWatch @JoeBuscaino "[Rio 2016] was a safe space, and I think LA is that kind of a place. This seems to be a place that has always done well, whether in 1932 or 1984. [I think we can deliver an] Olympics that isn't infected by politics."

@RioOnWatch @JoeBuscaino Imagine going to Rio in 2016 and calling it a "safe space."

spectrumnews1.com/ca/la-west/thi…

@RioOnWatch @JoeBuscaino And then imagine calling LA - the capital of police militarization + killings, ground zero of American gentrification + criminalization of poverty, a "democracy" diluted into oligarchy via decades of neoliberalism - a "safe space."