Torch leaves S.F. after surprise route ****ft
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 pu****ng 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 op****tunity 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.
Hundreds of police officers flanked the runners on foot and on
motorcycles and bicycles, but they were not needed much. The whole
torch run, once the runners began their radically altered route at
about 2 p.m., took less than two hours. Rather than furious clashes
between protesters, there were mostly screams of sup****t and delight
at seeing the torch go by.
Mother, son see torch
Nancy Chan of San Francisco, with her son Christian, 4, ran over from
her house two blocks away when she heard that the route was suddenly
moved to Van Ness instead of the waterfront.
"This is a once-in-a-lifetime thing for us to see the torch," she
said. "There is a lot of politics around it, but that is the great
thing about America - the free speech."
Likewise, Joan Woodaver, who works near Van Ness, saw on television
that the route had altered and headed over. But unlike Chan, she toted
a sign reading "Free Tibet and Free Burma."
"I really admire the Dalai Lama, and I feel disturbed that the
government of China treats people so poorly," Woodaver said.
Only three people were arrested Wednesday: one at McCovey Cove and two
in the Marina. However, police did at times shove the crowds back and
detain some protesters on the sidelines before letting them go.
The morning had ****tended a much different, more contentious affair.
The torch was supposed to be carried along the Embarcadero after a 1
p.m. ceremony at AT&T Park on the waterfront, but by early morning
thousands of people had already gathered. Most at first were
sup****ters of China and onlookers who came just to see the torch.
Around 11 a.m., protesters started to arrive, and the tone changed.
Hundreds of people began screaming and sometimes pu****ng each other.
Many of the pro-torch demonstrators carried red Chinese flags and said
they were bused in by the Chinese Consulate and other pro-China
groups, though others said they had come of their own accord.
Meanwhile, opposing demonstrators carried Tibetan flags and preached
independence for the country. Others were on hand to sup****t Burma or
rail against China's backing of the Sudanese government in its war in
Darfur.
At one point early in the morning, Jeremy Darrah, 26, walked into
Justin Herman Plaza and began asking pro-China sup****ters if they knew
about Beijing's backing of the Sudanese government. He was immediately
surrounded by 30 people who told him to go home. About 10 police
officers then stepped in and told Darrah he could not protest in that
area because the Chinese sup****ters had secured permits - an apparent
misunderstanding of the city's official policy to allow all protesters
at the site.
The clashes got more intense from then on as crowds of more than 1,000
surged up and down the Embarcadero chanting, "Free Tibet!" or - less
often - "Leave the torch alone!"
A tense beginning
By the time the torch was lit at McCovey Cove around 1:20 p.m., the
mood in the streets up and down the waterfront was tense, some
protesters blocking vehicles they thought contained the torch and
others yelling at and pu****ng each other.
After a few opening remarks by ceremonial officials, the first runner,
surrounded by Chinese and American police, headed away from the crowd
and into the Pier 48 building.
Unbeknownst to anyone watching, that torch never left the building. A
mile away, the torch runners were gathered at a hotel on O'Farrell
Street with one of several backup torches - and they drove with that
torch in a convoy up Ellis Street to Van Ness Avenue and Pine Street.
The 70-plus torchbearers wound up starting their relay there. A new
torch was unloaded from one of the cars and lit, and the runners,
carrying the flame in pairs, began to make their way north.
The torch was handed off every half-block or so to a new pair of
torchbearers.
As the route progressed, the crowds slowly grew. At one point, a knot
of pro-Tibet demonstrators yelled, "Shame on China! How dare you
represent China!" In return, a group of torch sup****ters yelled back:
"They represent the U.S.!"
By the time the runners got to Broadway, the crowds were five people
deep on the sidewalk, mostly screaming sup****t and craning for good
views beyond the police lines.
Some protesters caught up to the run along its surprise route, but
most stayed at Justin Herman Plaza, where a closing ceremony was
planned. That ceremony was canceled in lieu of a quieter, shorter one,
with just officials and the runners, at San Francisco International
Air****t.
Torch off to Argentina
The torch finally headed out of the city around 3:30 p.m. and arrived
at the air****t at 4:15. The motorcade bearing the torch was
immediately whisked to a parking area near the international terminal
and placed off limits to the half-dozen protesters and a clutch of
news crews. Air****t officials said a chartered Air China plane took
off at 9:05 p.m., carrying the torch to its next stop in Argentina.
Back at Justin Herman Plaza, as word filtered through the crowds that
there would be no ending ceremony after all, many reactions ranged
from deflated to flat-out angry.
"I am very upset," said Rosie Salis, 51, who came in from Foster City
to see the relay. "There were lots of people here with their kids.
They had to wait for four or five hours, and it's very disappointing."
Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin, a vocal critic of
Newsom's administration, was equally unhappy, as was the local ACLU
chapter.
"Gavin Newsom runs San Francisco the way the premier of China runs his
country - secrecy, lies, misinformation, lack of transparency and
manipulating the populace," Peskin said. "He did it so China can
re****t they had a great torch run."
Newsom emphatically denied those accusations.
"We felt it was in everyone's best interest that we augment the
route," Newsom said. "I believe people were afforded the right to
protest and sup****t the torch. You saw that in the streets. They were
not denied the ability to protest."
Peter Ueberroth, head of the U.S. Olympic Committee, agreed. He was
with the mayor during the run, and he thought the tactics saved the
day.
"The city of San Francisco, from a global perspective, will be
applauded," he said.
Chronicle staff writers Wyatt Buchanan, Jaxon VanDerbeken, Michael
Taylor, John Koopman, Michael Cabanatuan, Robert Selna, Steve
Rubenstein, Kelly Zito, Cecilia M. Vega, Anastasia Ustinova, Reyhan
Harmanci and Meredith May contributed to this re****t. E-mail the
writers at rgordon@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
tschevitz@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
and mlagos@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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