I only defend Rio when there's need to. I'm sorry, but most of what you describe is not verisimilar.
Something that foreigners tend not to know about Rio is the fact that criminality is not hidden here. Everything that it is newsworthy gets to the news.

A gang of people ripping someone's clothes off is not something you see everyday, even less so by a major road.
If someone was stabbed in Jd. Oce�nico, the whole world would have known about it. The only exception would have if the stabbee were a criminal.
I do hope that the blood you saw was not his, since Jd. Oce�nico was where the accident took place: http://www.dw.com/en/rio-2016-german...ent/a-19472471

I agree that it is weird that they denied the robbery.

Yes, I have taken it and I know for a fact that it is possible to throw a rock, with a slingshot even more so. Do you have photos of the holes? I would love to read the reports. Do you have the links?

Now you are being more descriptive. You are referring to this:
http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports...pics/88332582/

I applaud the police forces for doing their job.

FYI, The date we saw the blood at Jardim Oceanico was the morning of Aug 8th, so this was not the same incident.

Here is a first hand account from someone that was on the bus and has had extensive combat experience: http://www.hoopfeed.com/content/2016...ee-michaelson/

I can not defend the number of fatal shootings in Chicago. However, according to Fox News, there were 61 police that were killed in Rio in the first six months of 2016. In addition, according to the same article, Amnesty International counted 265 shootings in just one week (obviously not all were fatal). Here is the link: http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/new...acial-element/

I am not saying that Rio is bad, just that we did not feel safe when we were there. We did see violence and it scared us. We did not think that Jardim Oceanico was in a bad area so when we went there we thought we would be safe.

Also, in the USA, "street justice" is not acceptable. We have a legal system and "street justice" is not an acceptable way of handing out justice.

Based on what we saw when we were in Rio, we would not go again. That is just our opinion based on our experience.

I'll have to disagree here. I'll take the very few robberies over the Atlanta bombing anytime. The vast majority of the robberies can be/should have been prevented with a minimum of common sense.

A terrorist attack has always been my greatest fear. It still is, to be honest. I'm much more comfortable now that over half the Games are through, but I don't think I'll be entirely at ease till everything is over.

Regardless, I do hope that the remaining time you still have here in Rio will be better than what you have been experiencing so far.

Rabbit, To a degree I agree with you. However a terrorist attack that kills numerous people is a singular event at a singular place. The shootings / robberies are numerous events that are spread over numerous areas. So it all depends on how you want to figure the odds of having a problem. The odds of being involved in a terrorist attack (if you consider it as a singular event) is much smaller than being involved in a shooting and / or robbery.

Considering that the windows were only broken on one side, I would presume that the projectiles were found.

The situation in Rio cannot be trusted by foreigners. You are right to trust a major brand name.

But you seem not to have been aware of the situation-- in your own country.

That is what happens eventually when police are corrupt and misuse their power.
It has begun to happen in the US. People have lost patience with badly trained bullies misusing their uniforms.

Where are the statistics for major cities in your own country?

So perhaps your privilege has allowed you to insulate yourself from the crueler realities of life in any country, including the US, these days. Time for a reality check?
I am sorry you perceived Rio as unsafe for you and your family. I myself have been there very frequently for long periods over the last two decades as a solo female traveler and have emphatically not felt that.


Really? The guy who took it upon himself to kill an innocent teenager who went out to get a snack walked free. Not the only case, just one of the most publicized recently.

As Tom Jobim said "Brazil is not for beginners."
But it is your great loss to choose not to experience the rich culture of Brazil, a country of which the city of Rio makes up only the tiniest part.

Here is an article by an experienced journalist with perspective:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/16/op...ft-region&_r=2

We will just need to disagree here.

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/robbery...172948663.html

To quote a portion of the article: More than 48,700 muggings took place in Rio last year, which was three times the number in New York City, which has 30 percent more residents.

Also, the article you reference (and you say the journalist has "perspective") says that the Brazilian economy is in the top 10 in the world in terms of GDP. This is technically correct however if you look at the GDP per capita, it is only $15,614 USD compared to an average of approximately $35,000 to $45,000 USD for other countries in the top 10. He also states that Brazilian life expectancy went up by 10.5 years to 74.4 years whereas in the US life expectancy only went up 4 years. However, what he fails to say is that life expectancy in the US is already at 79 years. So, as usual, people can choose which data they want to present and how they want to present it.

Oh, yes, we certainly disagree!

And you did not address the fact that issues mentioned are not confined to Rio. Privilege allows some of us to ignore realities, both at home and abroad.
----
When I went to read the article you linked, there was another video article running in the upper left called "How the Rio Olympics Destroyed a Neighborhood". That is the real story of these games. Little wonder displaced and marginalized residents have reason not be delighted at the rich foreigners who have taken over their city and whose luxury and comfort comes before residents' own safety and health.
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The key phrase in the article, though:
"Part of the challenge is Rio’s layout. It is a city aligned among hills and the beach, meaning the sprawl of most major cities is hemmed in by geography. So tourist areas aren’t that far from favelas, and transportation arteries often wind near both."
There is no other city I know of in the world where the rich and poor live literally rubbing shoulders, the poor looking hour by hour into the fancy living rooms of the rich, and many of the rich looking down their noses at the poor neighbors it is to their advantage to keep disenfranchised.

I certainly hope you put much thought into locating someplace more in your comfort zone for your next vacation.
Meanwhile, the fewer unappreciative tourists cluttering up the landscape, the better local experience for those of us who love it there, warts and all, happily dancing samba, caipirinha in hand, till the wee hours, living well on our 15K.

Sounds like Oakland, or any US City.. On live TV, news crews in the Bay Area and through out the US have been robbed at gun point.

I'll keep my response short and sweet... Americans have little room to talk when it comes to violence, our elementary schools and college campuses don't have gun man on campus drills for the fun of it.

FYI: There was a shooting and fights near Super Bowl City in SF... this was not replayed over and over again on national news like the events in RIO. The NFL like the Olympics do their best to hide the negatives..

I have been to RIO many times, I love it, one of my top 5 destinations.

Seeing the extensive comments regarding the state of Rio's crime. I think I should just express a few thoughts as an Expat living in Rio for the past 3 years.

Firstly let's call a spade a spade. It's a fact that Rio is one of the most dangerous cities in terms of street crimes, with magging, pick pocketing, ATM hold up and express kidnapping being the more obvious ones.

However (yes there's a "but" in here) a lot of the times these are crime of opportunity, whereby the victim did not practice some simple precautions. I always advise my friends coming to Rio, that they need to practice what I call "Riocaution" during their stay. Especially coming from relatively safe countries, where your normal practice is considered plain stupidity by Carioca.

By taking these precautions (i.e. don't carry large amount of cash, walking and talking on mobile phones, walking late night alone, etc), you'll greatly reduce the chances of making yourself a target.

There's no reason why you can't have a wonderful stay in Rio, which in my humble opinion is one of the most beautiful cities in the world.

Cheers all.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/brazilian...ly.html?ref=gs

Where is the taxi driver? The Brazilian government can't locate the driver of the taxi they said they were in for the trip back to their lodging? This should be simple; get the guy to say what happened.

Yes, b, there was another case a couple of years ago in which I seem to remember some foreign tourists were prosecuted for lying about being robbed.

and btw....tell me, is Lochte's Portuguese fluent or did the robber tell him in understandable English to get down on the ground? Interesting. (Our charity dollars at work? ESL lessons in the favelas for potential thieves to communicate their demands to tourists?)

Nobody knows. But the judge was seen driving the taxi driver's Porsche.