It is strange that San Francisco can find 80 runners who are willing to go along with this foolish plan to hide the torch as it runs through the city. Alternative route? Try invisibility. Newsom invites trouble. Perhaps he wants trouble.
S.F. treats torch run as a hot potato
Wyatt Buchanan, Cecilia M. Vega,Jaxon Van Derbeken, Chronicle Staff Writers
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
San Francisco officials say they are confident the city will host a successful Olympic torch run Wednesday and avoid a repeat of the chaos that engulfed the relay in Paris, where police were forced to extinguish torches and carry the flame in a bus.
But Mayor Gavin Newsom said the protests that disrupted the torch run through Paris on Monday, as well as large protests during the relay in London on Sunday, would result in changes in San Francisco's plans for the flame when 80 runners carry it through the city's streets.
Newsom said the planned 6-mile torch route along the central waterfront and around Fisherman's Wharf could change up to and even during the relay. Police said security plans would include having officers run alongside torchbearers to protect them and the flame from any protesters who might try to disrupt the run.
Scenes in Paris and London of demonstrators trying to grab torches from runners and put out the flame with fire extinguishers "obviously play a part in our security approach and will play a part in terms of our making any final decisions," Newsom said.
"I have great expectations that it is going to be a successful event, but I am not naive to the realities of hosting an event where people are very intense on both sides," said Newsom, who did not reveal any specific details of the changes.
China's ambassador to the United States, Zhou Wenzhong, met with the mayor at City Hall for 45 minutes Monday evening to discuss security. San Francisco police officers and sheriff's deputies formed a line between the ambassador and reporters, and officers whisked him out of City Hall.
Newsom spokesman Nathan Ballard said Wenzhong had expressed concern about the London and Paris protests and asked Newsom how they could be avoided in San Francisco.
Protest on bridge cables
The depth of local protesters' feelings was underscored Monday when three people scaled suspension cables near the south tower of the Golden Gate Bridge and unfurled banners supporting Tibetan independence 150 feet over the roadway. The three spent almost three hours on the cables before the approach of bridge ironworkers caused them to rappel down, where they were arrested by the California Highway Patrol.
The CHP said the three - Mac Sutherlin, 30, and Duane Martinez, 27, both of Sausalito, and Hannah Strange, 29, of Oakland - were booked on suspicion of felony conspiracy and other, misdemeanor charges. Four other protesters on the bridge who did not climb the cables also were arrested, the CHP said.
Groups upset with Beijing's rule in Tibet and other Chinese policies are planning more actions before and during Wednesday afternoon's torch relay. Some activists organizing protests along the relay route said they planned to engage in civil disobedience when the flame passes by.
More than 500 police officers will be involved in securing the flame when it arrives early this morning at San Francisco International Airport, spends the day in an undisclosed location and then is passed from torch to torch on Wednesday.
Officers to guard flame
Officers from the California Highway Patrol, the San Francisco Sheriff's Department, the U.S. State Department and other agencies also will guard the flame.
Newsom noted that the torch route already has been simplified and reduced from 8 miles to 6 miles and that the opening and closing ceremonies have been whittled down to less than 20 minutes each. Those changes were made before the flame passed through London and Paris.
As the flame's only North American stop, San Francisco is attracting protesters from around the country who want to advocate for a range of causes, most notably China's human rights record toward Tibet and Falun Gong practitioners and Beijing's policies toward Burma and the Darfur region of Sudan.
Nyung Than, president of the Burmese American Democratic Alliance, said members of his organization planned to line the narrower streets of the relay route, near Aquatic Park, and engage in some type of "direct action" there.
"We have many options on the table," Than said. "Whatever we do will be nonviolent, but we will do nonviolent civil disobedience."
The group that organized Monday's protest on the Golden Gate Bridge, Students for a Free Tibet, said it was planning other such actions over the next few days. The organization is not planning to disrupt the relay, but "we cannot stop any individual who wants to do that. It's up to them," said Thupten Tsering, the group's Northern California coordinator.
Other groups said categorically they would not disrupt the relay.
"In fact, we're going to actively discourage anyone from doing anything that could be interpreted as disruptive," said Allyn Brooks-LaSure, spokesman for the Save Darfur Coalition.
Amnesty International members also are organizing protests but are instructing people who join them not to break the law.
United States Olympic Committee Chairman Peter Ueberroth issued a statement late Monday that said, "The world will learn a great deal about San Francisco during the next two days ...
"When it accepted the honor of hosting the Olympic Flame, San Francisco also accepted two important responsibilities. It must provide a proper forum for the peaceful expression of opinions and dissent. And it must safely and respectfully welcome the flame and honor the U.S. athletes and other participants who will carry the torch."
The 80 people selected to carry the torch will gather for the first time today to meet with organizers and learn more about how the relay will work. As of Monday afternoon, torchbearers still had not been told which portion of the route they will run or given details about security.
Despite the protests in Paris and London, none of the San Francisco torchbearers has backed out.
"I'm really putting my trust in the Olympic committee and the Chinese government, the Secret Service and the San Francisco police. I think they'll do their best," said Sister Patricia Rayburn, a 64-year-old Franciscan nun from Redwood City who will carry the torch.
She said protesters denouncing China's human rights record should know that "there are torchbearers who have similar sentiments," and she said she hopes they spread their message nonviolently.
"I'm praying and hoping that we can respect one another and do it peacefully," Rayburn said.
Footage from London and Paris showing protesters tackling torchbearers and storming the relay routes concerned David Drabkin, but not enough to make the 23-year-old salesman of organic produce want to walk away from what he said was a childhood dream of being an Olympic torchbearer.
The Haight-Ashbury resident broke his leg in February and is hoping to leave his crutches at home Wednesday. But he will definitely be limping, and that, he said, makes him easy target for protesters looking to snuff out the flame.
"I'll be easily identifiable," Drabkin said. "But I think I can defend myself if I have to. If I really stare a protester in the eye, and we really look at each other, I can't imagine them trying to tackle me and take my flame. I hope it would be more civilized than that."
To find out more
Find information on the history of the Olympic Games at www.olympic.org.
Olympic torch events
Today
-- The Beijing Olympic torch will arrive at San Francisco International Airport at 4 a.m.
-- A protest against China's Olympic torch and a celebration of the Tibetan Freedom Torch will start at 11 a.m. at United Nations Plaza, at Market and Hyde streets, near the BART Civic Center Station.
-- Richard Gere, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Tibetan leaders will attend the Candle Lights for Human Rights vigil, which will start at 6 p.m. at United Nations Plaza. www.sfteamtibet.org.
Wednesday
-- A group of Burmese monks and Burma democracy supporters will gather at 9:30 a.m. at Vista Point to walk across the Golden Gate Bridge, www.badasf.org.
-- Team Tibet will meet at 10 a.m. at Ferry Park to protest the Olympic torch relay in San Francisco. www.sfteamtibet.org.
-- The Northern California Chinese Culture-Athletic Federation will gather between 9 and 10 a.m. at Justin Herman Plaza and will welcome the Olympic torch team with a public tai chi performance.
-- The Olympic torch relay begins at 1 p.m. at McCovey Cove at AT&T Park.
-- The Olympic torch closing ceremony is at 3:30 p.m. at Justin Herman Plaza.
Chronicle staff writers Jonathan Curiel and Marisa Lagos contributed to this report. E-mail the writers at wbuchanan@sfchronicle.com, cvega@sfchronicle.com and jvanderbeken@sfchronicle.com.
This article appeared on page A - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle
(04-07) 18:31 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- Three demonstrators scaled cables near the south tower of the Golden Gate Bridge today and unfurled banners intended to draw attention to Chinese human rights violations in Tibet.
The protest by Students for a Free Tibet came the day before the Olympic Torch is to arrive in San Francisco for its only North American stop before this summer's games in Beijing.
The protesters, two men and a woman, scaled the cables around 10:30 a.m., and unfurled two banners around 11:20 a.m. One banner read, "One World, One Dream, Free Tibet 08," a play on the official slogan of this year's Olympic Games, "One World, One Dream." The other read simply, "Free Tibet."
The protesters also hung two Tibetan flags.
The activists used climbing gear to reach a spot 150 feet over the roadway and 370 feet above the water. They rappelled down about 1 p.m. and were arrested by California Highway Patrol officers. Iron workers will remove the banners and flags, authorities said.
California Highway Patrol spokeswoman Mary Ziegenbein said police arrested another four activists who did not scale the cables.
Bridge manager Kary Witt said cameras are trained on the span, but that authorities at first hadn't realized that protesters were about to climb the cables because they wore "ordinary" clothing and pushed a baby stroller. Their "Team Tibet" T-shirts were covered, and their banners and climbing gear were disguised by the stroller, he said.
Witt said the group came down after he went out with a bullhorn and pleaded with them. He told the activists that they were posing a danger to themselves and bridge employees.
It took the group an hour to get down, Witt said, partly because the female protester got caught in one of the banners and needed help getting untangled.
Arrested were Mac Sutherlin, 30, of Sausalito; Hannah Strange, 29, of Oakland; Duane Martinez, 27, of Sausalito; Alexandra Taub, 22, of Vancouver; Thomas Parkin, 38, of San Francisco; Tashi Sharzur, 47, of San Mateo; and Leslie Kaup, 31, of St. Paul, Minn. All were booked on suspicion of felony conspiracy and misdemeanor causing a public nuisance, the CHP said.
Sutherlin, Strange and Martinez, the three who climbed the cables, were also booked on suspicion of misdemeanor trespassing, the CHP said.
Yangchen Lhamo, a Tibetan American who lives in San Francisco, said Students for a Free Tibet hopes to persuade the International Olympic Committee to keep the torch out of Tibet this summer. It is scheduled to pass through Tibet on June 19-21.
Lhamo said the group planned other protests Tuesday and Wednesday that she said would be peaceful. On Tuesday, there will be an alternative torch event, the celebration of the Tibetan Freedom Torch, beginning at 11 a.m. at United Nations Plaza in San Francisco.
A number of visitors who were prevented from crossing the bridge for several hours appeared to take the protest in stride. Cincinnati resident Jim Hayden, 62, who is visiting San Francisco for the first time, said he was well aware of the city's reputation for political activity.
"If they're going to do it, do it here," Hayden said. "These people have their point of view, and find very strange ways to express them."
E-mail the writers at jcuriel@sfchronicle.com and mlagos@sfchronicle.com.
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