Earlier this year, DSA-LA co-hosted an interactive forum on police and prison abolition with Ground Game LA, AWARE-LA, and SAJE featuring professor of sociology Alex S. Vitale, author of the new book The End of Policing. We had a chance afterwards to speak with Vitale, who offered his unique perspective on the effect of the Olympics on militarized policing and surveillance in IOC-occupied Olympic host cities before, during, and after the Games:
“Since Mexico ’68, we have seen local security forces use the Olympic Games as an excuse to dramatically increase their riot control capabilities. Body armor, less lethal weaponry, and surveillance technology can be expected to proliferate. When the Games end, this new suppressive capacity doesn’t just evaporate; it remains part of the political policing capacity of the state and is often used to intensify protest policing in ways that undermine movement building and increase tensions between police and protestors.”
Designated as a National Special Security Event, the 2028 Olympics would give the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which includes Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), joint-jurisdiction of over 700 miles of Southern California:
“You can expect to see a major presence from the Border Patrol, which has become a central agency in providing security for major national events such as the Super Bowl. They are likely to carry out identity checks in bus and rail stations far removed from the venue sites as well as provide extensive surveillance capacity.”
On June 5th, a spokesperson for the LAPD publicly discussed plans for expanding the size of LAPD by 2,500 officers, a which represents a more than 25% increase in the most murderous, most troubled police departments in American history.
Why does the LAPD need more officers, more money, and more tools for killing and dehumanizing?
The reason they cited was security for the 2028 Olympics.