Thursday, April 10, 2008
San Francisco Protesters "Torched" by Alternative Route
A surprise change in the route by local leaders left an estimated ten thousand protesters waving their signs and banners at each other. In what was supposed to be a replay of the disruptions of the running of the torch in Paris and London, the decision to change the route allowed the true purpose of the event to take place with out the Moonbats infusion:
Torch leaves S.F. after surprise route shift
Rachel Gordon, Tanya Schevitz, Kevin Fagan,Marisa Lagos, Chronicle Staff Writers
Thursday, April 10, 2008
04-09) 20:28 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- It was an Olympic-sized fake-out, and by the end of the day, instead of the violent clashes that some had feared, the Beijing Olympic torch run left only thousands of frustrated protesters on one end of San Francisco and mostly relieved runners and officials on the other.
The finger-pointing is bound to go on for days about whether changing the route at the last minute was right. But on Wednesday, Mayor Gavin Newsom and other officials said that once they got a good look mid-morning at the chanting, surging, flag-waving crowds along the torch's advertised route, they felt they had no choice.
"If we had started down that (original) route, I guarantee you would have seen helmet-clad officers with batons pushing back protesters," San Francisco Police Chief Heather Fong said.
Complaints about the bait-and-switch rang long and loud from many among the estimated 10,000 people milling along the original route all morning. Many rallied for a range of causes, such as China's human rights record and even the idea that the Olympics should be free of politics, and they viewed the torch run as an opportunity to vent their positions before an international audience focused on the torch's only stop in North America.
All anticipated a noisy, politically charged experience, perhaps even as dramatic as the demonstrations in London and Paris. Instead, the city pulled a fast one, which was evident from the moment the first runner emerged from AT&T Park and ducked into a cavernous warehouse on Pier 48 instead of heading up the Embarcadero as planned. Before the crowds could fully react, the torch runners soon emerged mysteriously two miles away on Van Ness Avenue and started a low-key trot northward into the Marina.........Link
The sad part of this story is that maybe half the folks on the original parade route may have been there to see a part of the history of this event. Instead, the other half that insisted on using this occasion to vent their political idealistic diatribes have only to look in the mirror for fault in wrecking a time honored tradition. But what more could we have expected from Moonbats?
A surprise change in the route by local leaders left an estimated ten thousand protesters waving their signs and banners at each other. In what was supposed to be a replay of the disruptions of the running of the torch in Paris and London, the decision to change the route allowed the true purpose of the event to take place with out the Moonbats infusion:
Torch leaves S.F. after surprise route shift
Rachel Gordon, Tanya Schevitz, Kevin Fagan,Marisa Lagos, Chronicle Staff Writers
Thursday, April 10, 2008
04-09) 20:28 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- It was an Olympic-sized fake-out, and by the end of the day, instead of the violent clashes that some had feared, the Beijing Olympic torch run left only thousands of frustrated protesters on one end of San Francisco and mostly relieved runners and officials on the other.
The finger-pointing is bound to go on for days about whether changing the route at the last minute was right. But on Wednesday, Mayor Gavin Newsom and other officials said that once they got a good look mid-morning at the chanting, surging, flag-waving crowds along the torch's advertised route, they felt they had no choice.
"If we had started down that (original) route, I guarantee you would have seen helmet-clad officers with batons pushing back protesters," San Francisco Police Chief Heather Fong said.
Complaints about the bait-and-switch rang long and loud from many among the estimated 10,000 people milling along the original route all morning. Many rallied for a range of causes, such as China's human rights record and even the idea that the Olympics should be free of politics, and they viewed the torch run as an opportunity to vent their positions before an international audience focused on the torch's only stop in North America.
All anticipated a noisy, politically charged experience, perhaps even as dramatic as the demonstrations in London and Paris. Instead, the city pulled a fast one, which was evident from the moment the first runner emerged from AT&T Park and ducked into a cavernous warehouse on Pier 48 instead of heading up the Embarcadero as planned. Before the crowds could fully react, the torch runners soon emerged mysteriously two miles away on Van Ness Avenue and started a low-key trot northward into the Marina.........Link
The sad part of this story is that maybe half the folks on the original parade route may have been there to see a part of the history of this event. Instead, the other half that insisted on using this occasion to vent their political idealistic diatribes have only to look in the mirror for fault in wrecking a time honored tradition. But what more could we have expected from Moonbats?
