Rodney King

I went to the championship soccer game in Rio de Janeiro today with an American exchange student living in Rio. Absolutely awesome. It was played in the biggest stadium in the world, Maracana, which has held up to 200,000. Steve and I sat on the Flamengo half of the stadium, which was wild because Flamengo won the championship in a penalty shootout. Fans shot off fireworks, lit flares, sang dozens of songs, danced, and waved enormous banners.

The only disturbing part of the game was the police. Brazil has pretty much marginalized the regular police, and now use the military police to deal with all things more serious than parking tickets. These military policemen are in the same class as Stacey Koon and the other LAPD officers that beat Rodney King. They administered some serious asswhooping with their billy clubs today. Any of these beatings, had they been in the U.S. and had they been caught on tape, would have made national headlines. For once, I tried to look as American as possible....

I am attaching a YouTube clip of fans from a different game played in Maracana. While its a little long, it should give you an idea of how rabid the fans are. Just click on the video to play it.



I leave Rio tomorrow morning for Salvador, a city in northern Brazil. Its hard not to fall in love with Rio, even after having only been here for two days. The city is gorgeous and brimming with energy.