{"id":30682,"date":"2016-07-22T11:15:28","date_gmt":"2016-07-22T14:15:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=30682"},"modified":"2019-08-13T07:54:21","modified_gmt":"2019-08-13T10:54:21","slug":"public-insecurity-and-the-olympics-mare-residents-discuss-increased-military-presence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=30682","title":{"rendered":"“Public (In)Security and the Olympics”: Mar\u00e9 Residents Discuss Increased Military Presence"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Thursday July 14, the\u00a0Popular Committee on\u00a0the World Cup and the Olympics<\/a> chaired a debate on the impact of increased police presence in Complexo da Mar\u00e9<\/a> on favelas and communities. Taking place in Museu da Mar\u00e9<\/a>, the debate\u2019s speakers included prominent community figures from Mar\u00e9 and was chaired by Gisele Tanaka of the Popular Committee\u00a0who reminded the audience that while the Olympic Games<\/a> depend on public spending, its priorities do not always reflect \u201cpublic interest.\u201d<\/p>\n

The debate focused on the disruption to basic services including education<\/a> and transport<\/a>\u00a0due to an increased number of security operations<\/a> taking place in Mar\u00e9 over the last few months. Personal safety is also an issue: reports indicate that citizens have been caught in crossfire<\/a> or hit by stray bullets during Military Police operations in their local residential areas. Ant\u00f4nio Carlos Pinto Vieira, director of the Museu da Mar\u00e9 and local resident, said, \u201cThis kind of police presence doesn\u2019t just have a financial cost but a social one too, and that comes as a sacrifice to residents.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Gizele Martins<\/a>, Mar\u00e9 resident and community journalist, argued that after a decade of mega-events hosted in Rio de Janeiro<\/a>, the most tangible change to the city is the increased repression of residents in the name of public security<\/a>. Speaking about heightened security before the 2014 World Cup<\/a>, Martins said residents were left asking why police presence had been prioritized over any other requests from residents to improve the area. “What did we do to deserve this war? Why don\u2019t we deserve an education? Why don\u2019t we deserve healthcare?\u201d<\/p>\n

Luiz Loren\u00e7o, a researcher at Rio de Janeiro Federal University\u2019s Urban and Regional Planning and Research Institute and a teacher in Mar\u00e9, said \u201cthe biggest effects of the current security operations in Mar\u00e9 have been on education,\u201d with police operations closing schools<\/a> during working hours since 2013 and intensifying in the last three months. \u201cI gave one class with blood in the doorway. How can young people study\u00a0in this environment? These are physical and psychological violations.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Bira<\/a><\/p>\n

Transport is another essential part of daily life that has been adversely impacted by security operations, according to Mar\u00e9 resident and photographer Bira Carvalho. \u201cIt\u2019s now much more difficult to go to the mall in Leblon<\/a> or to the beach,\u201d he said. \u201cLots of people are afraid.\u201d Vieira also argued that the Avenida Brasil bus route is a lifeline for many Mar\u00e9 citizens to get to work, and that police operations such as the one that closed the road and left motorists sheltering behind their vehicles<\/a> on Saturday July 17, render the Olympics \u201cthe exclusion games<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

L\u00eddia Felix Silva, a student at Rio’s State University (UERJ) and local resident, argued that security deployment in the favelas privileges some cultures above others. \u201cOur funk<\/a> and our music isn\u2019t culture, but funk in the South Zone<\/a> is culture and everyone dances. But when these things happen in favelas, it is\u00a0something wrong<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Monique Cruz, Manguinhos<\/a> resident and researcher at Justi\u00e7a Global<\/a>, also argued that heightened security was \u201ca strategic repression of a population which is black, is poor and is in the favelas.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hasan Zarif, a second-generation Palestinian refugee in Colombia and co-founder of United Front for Refugees and Immigrants, argued that the \u201cfragmentation of space\u201d in Rio de Janeiro as a consequence of increased security is comparable to the police control towers used in contemporary Colombia. \u201cSpaces in Rio are fragmented by the Pacifying Police Units (UPPs)<\/a>,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a form of segregation<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Public spending in Mar\u00e9 prior to the Olympic Games has largely concentrated on security: one 2015 report shows that the amount spent on security in Mar\u00e9 over the last six years is double the funding received by other areas of social spending<\/a> such as local education and the creation of family clinics. A second report, also released in 2015, revealed that the number of military personnel employed in Mar\u00e9 since the military occupation\u00a0began in 2014 is equal to 85% of the military force<\/a> utilized in peacekeeping missions in Haiti post-earthquake.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Thursday July 14, the\u00a0Popular Committee on\u00a0the World Cup and the Olympics chaired a debate on the impact of increased police presence in Complexo da Mar\u00e9 on favelas and communities. Taking place in Museu da […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":103,"featured_media":30687,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1736,1277,1290,1333,1329],"tags":[9,280,1396,397,221,107,25,3000,1259,918,673,545,37,5,15,2471,809,409,1008,30],"writer":[1956],"translator":[],"illustrator":[],"photographer":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-30682","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-1736","8":"category-uppwatch","9":"category-civilsociety","10":"category-event-reports","11":"category-by-international-observers","12":"tag-9","13":"tag-complexo-da-mare","14":"tag-criminalization-of-poverty","15":"tag-education","16":"tag-favela-culture","17":"tag-health","18":"tag-human-rights","19":"tag-justica-global","20":"tag-mega-events","21":"tag-military-police","22":"tag-misplaced-public-priorities","23":"tag-mobility","24":"tag-north-zone","25":"tag-olympics","26":"tag-pacifying-police-unit","27":"tag-palestine","28":"tag-public-security","29":"tag-public-transportation","30":"tag-right-to-the-city","31":"tag-urban-violence","32":"writer-ciara-long"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/103"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30682"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30682\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/30687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30682"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwriter&post=30682"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftranslator&post=30682"},{"taxonomy":"illustrator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fillustrator&post=30682"},{"taxonomy":"photographer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fphotographer&post=30682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}