If you thought Thursday’s protest on I-93 made things difficult for commuters, imagine similar demonstrations popping up intermittently throughout the region for the next several years.
That’s what Boston could have in store as it pursues its bid to host the 2024 Olympics.
At least two separate groups of activists have taken the expressed goal of convincing the International Olympic Committee that Boston is unfit to host the games.
“My goal is to make us as unfriendly and unpalatable to the IOC as possible,” Robin Jacks, leader of the group “No Boston 2024,” told The Boston Globe. “I hate to do that. I’m really a friendly person. I like to meet new people. I genuinely like people. But I want the IOC to be like, ‘I hate those people.’ ”
The IOC will select a host city for the 2024 Summer Games in 2017.
No Boston 2024 is more grassroots-based than No Boston Olympics, a political group looking to lobby elected officials. No Boston 2024 has “some overlap” with Occupy Boston and is “thematically aligned” with the Black Lives Matter movement that led Thursday’s highway protests, the Globe’s Joanna Weiss writes.
Considering the large protests that have accompanied other recent major international competitions, it’s not a matter of “if,” but “where” and “when” the Olympics protests will occur. Maybe you’ll be caught in the thick of them or maybe you’ll be taking part, but it sure sounds like they’re coming.
Thumbnail photo via Greg M. Cooper/USA TODAY Sports Images
