I heard the Green Zone was pretty safe.
Posted on 07/06/2007 3:38:50 AM PDT by gridlock
The Live Earth concert in Rio de Janeiro was expected to go ahead after organizers overcame security concerns and a judge lifted a ban on the climate change awareness event on Thursday.
"The show is on again. The prosecutor's office asked the judge to reconsider and she revoked the suspension," a spokeswoman for the Rio Justice Tribunal said.
Rio is the last concert in Saturday's Live Earth global series - partly organized by former US Vice President Al Gore - with events also due in London, Sydney, Johannesburg, Tokyo, Shanghai, Hamburg and East Rutherford, New Jersey.
The Rio prosecutor's office had sought an injunction to stop the pop concert on Copacabana beach because too few police would be available as officers prepare for the Pan American Games, which start on July 13 in the crime-plagued city.
But the event's organizers, including the RioTur municipal tourism authority, said they had obtained a police guarantee on Thursday that there would be adequate security.
"We met with authorities and addressed their concerns, and the concert will continue as planned," Kristina Schake, Live Earth's communications director, said in a statement.
Rio is the only Live Earth concert free and open to the public. If it had been stopped, it would have been the second cancellation; Istanbul was dropped last month because of a lack of interest and security concerns. Ticket sales have been slow for most Live Earth shows and organizers had to change venues in Johannesburg in a bid to improve sales there.
A giant beach stage in front of Rio's plush Copacabana Palace hotel was already up. Organizers said they plan to use dozens of observation towers and platforms as well as police cameras in the security plan for the event.
Performers including Lenny Kravitz, Pharrell Williams, Jorge Ben Jor and Macy Gray have been lined up to play on Copacabana to an expected audience of up to 1 million people.
A cancellation would be embarrassing for city officials, who hope the show and the games will showcase Rio's legendary charms instead of exposing its rampant crime.
Rio has one of the highest murder rates in the world, with a toll comparable to some war zones. At least 1,800 people were killed in the first four months of 2007 in the metropolitan area, official figures show.
Police have stepped up operations against drug gangs in Rio's slums in the run-up to the Pan American Games. Last week, they raided a slum on the city outskirts, killing about 20 people after a siege in which two dozen people had been killed and more than 60 wounded since May
Bummer.
The Rio concert is the one most likely to be attended because its the only one thats free
[Mr] T
LLS
This may be a case of Liberals just being so much more clever and knowing so much more than everybody else. If they think Good Feelings and Karmic Alignment are going to keep a Million people under control, they may be in for a rude surprise. Observation towers and cameras just means more footage for World's Most Shocking Police Videos VII.
Be prepared for more Million Man Math.
The organizers of these boondoggles have already decided how many people they are going to claim showed up. How many people actually show up is irrelevant. The Round-Heeled Media will be only too happy to report the lie.
Good to know. :-D
The very name "Live Earth" just drips with Kumbaya, group hug, love-fest idealism. Can you imagine attending one of those things and having to be surrounded by those people? {shudder!}
Can you imagine standing in the middle of the crowd when they stop the music for however long it is going to take for a Million people to sign their stupid little Seven Point Pledge cards? Of a Million people, I bet about fifteen will remember to bring a pen.
Perhaps Lenny Kravits will stand before the crowd, raise his arms, and grant mass absolution...
Sometime tomorrow somebody will have to start the LIVEEarth Riot and Mayhem LIVE THREAD, so we can follow the carnage in Real-Time...
Not without a full-body condom!!! ;-)
LLS
I can’t wait! I hope it is everything we hope it to be!!!
LLS
Don’t stop thinking about tomorrow!
I, for one, hope there is no violence. Even though it would be delicious to see this thing blow up in Algore’s face, there would be a lot of innocent people killed. That is just not worth it.
I do not want anyone hurt either... well ok, I do want gore himself to get b!tch-slapped... but I digress. What I want to see if hypocrisy on parade... filth and dirt and trash and waste everywhere... all from the "green" Earth "save our planet drug and booze fest"!
LLS
I fear, however, that violence, injury and death is a forgone conclusion. This is not going to work out peacefully. You put a Million people on the beach without enough security, and somebody is going to get hurt.
Of course, from the Libbie point of view, it is all an acceptable cost. After all, they are Saving the Planet!
Correction. Wasn't Antarctica also dropped?
And no one sees the irony of cancelling the concert in the muslim country of Turkey over "security concerns" while trying to convince us that man made global warming is the biggest threat we face in the world today.
If Antarctica was dropped, the hype machine has not been informed. They are still going on, ad nauseum about concerts in 7 Continents. You don't get to 7 without Antarctica.
Global Warming is a nice crusade, that demands people beat up on themselves instead of opposing others. The Liberal PC mind is incapable of processing the fact that any other culture that is opposed to ours might be worth fighting.
It is a given that all moralities are equivalent, and that any opposing view, no matter how abhorrent, must be respected. Therefore the Global War on Terror leads to a paradox, that demands the PC Liberal examine that core belief.
Rather than do that, it is much easier to get oneself worked up into a lather about something abstract like Global Warming. And the beauty of it is, if we lose the fight, it's all made up so it doesn't matter!
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