From an 8.14 N.Y. Times report by Michael Powell, about a journey through Rio de Janeiro’s Favela do Mandela, a ramshackle collection of brick-and-tar-paper buildings, a thousand metaphysical miles from the well-heeled Olympic zone:
“We scrambled up a hardscrabble path to the new police precinct that commands the hill like a medieval castle keep. Inside, three police officers in body armor nodded warily. They pointed to one, two, three bullet holes in the glass windows of the precinct, each the size of a ping-pong ball; the police attack and the gangs counterattack.
“The precinct wall is dominated by a painting of a knight kneeling and holding his sword, accompanied by these words: ‘You may die but if you don’t fight, you’re already dead.'”
