>
> Rachel Gordon, Cecilia M. Vega, Wyatt Buchanan, Tanya Schevitz,Marisa
> Lagos, Chronicle Staff Writers
>
> Wednesday, April 9, 2008
>
>
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/04/09/MNDS102II...
>
> (04-09) 17:18 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- San Francisco leaders surprised
> thousands of supporters and protesters today by rerouting the Beijing
> Olympic torch run from its advertised route to a picturesque course
> that avoided the throngs of demonstrators along the Embarcadero.
>
> The result was a much more low-key event than anticipated.
>
> 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 affair at San
> Francisco International Airport. The torch is expected to leave for
> Buenos Aires on a China Airways flight.
>
> The torch was originally scheduled to head from McCovey Cove along the
> waterfront to Fisherman's Wharf and back to Justin Herman Plaza. But
> after an opening ceremony, the torch was instead driven from McCovey
> Cove to Van Ness Avenue, where pairs of runners - buffered by dozens
> of police officers - carried it north to Bay Street and Marina
> Boulevard and onto Doyle Drive near the Golden Gate Bridge. That route
> was originally discounted by city officials as being too high profile.
>
> The torch finally headed out of the city around 3:30 p.m. and arrived
> at the airport at 4:15 p.m. The motorcade bearing the torch was
> immediately whisked to a parking area near the international terminal
> and quickly placed off limits to the half dozen protesters and a
> clutch of news crews. Airport officials said a chartered Air China
> plane was due to pull up to the terminal at 6 p.m.
>
> The route changes allowed city officials to avoid the majority of
> protesters who interrupted recent runs in Paris and London, though
> some people sprinted to catch up with the convoy as it reached the
> Marina district today.
>
> But as word filtered through the crowds at Justin Herman Plaza 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."
>
> Demonstrators, including Harper Honan who brought a Tibetan flag to
> the Embarcadero, were also upset. Honan rode her bicycle to Van Ness
> Avenue to catch some of the run, but said the city should not have
> changed the route.
>
> "They want to purposely thwart any organized protest that had been
> planned," she said.
>
> City officials said this morning that they planned to cut the relay
> route short because of the large number of demonstrators, but never
> indicated that they would completely change the course. City Hall
> sources familiar with the police response said the current route had
> been the plan since at least this morning, something the mayor denied.
>
> The bait-and-switch was immediately blasted by Board of Supervisors
> President Aaron Peskin, a vocal critic of Mayor Gavin Newsom's
> administration.
>
> "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 misled supporters and
> opponents of the run. People brought their families and their
> children, and (mayoral officials) hatched a cynical plan to please the
> Bush State Department and the Chinese government because of the
> incredible influence of money.
>
> "He did it so China can report they had a great torch run," Peskin
> said. "It's the worst kind of government - government by deceit and
> misinformation."
>
> The mayor, reached by phone near the end of the torch run, denied that
> city officials knew early this morning that the torch route would
> change.
>
> Newsom said he met with torch runners shortly before the opening
> ceremony and asked them whether the route should be changed or the run
> canceled.
>
> Newsom said he and Police Chief Heather Fong had decided to alter the
> route at 11 a.m., and changed it yet again when they realized throngs
> of people were massing in huge numbers - particularly around the
> ballpark, where the most intense clashes occurred.
>
> "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 support 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, was with the
> mayor during at least part of the torch run and praised the way the
> city handled event.
>
> "The city of San Francisco, from a global perspective, will be
> applauded," he said.
>
> The torch was lit at McCovey Cove around 1:20 p.m. and the first
> runner, surrounded by Chinese and American police, headed away from
> the crowd and into the Pier 48 building on the waterfront. About 20
> minutes later, a convoy of vehicles, including vans and police on
> motorcycles, pulled out of the building and headed through downtown
> and the Tenderloin to Van Ness Avenue.
>
> The convoy stopped at Van Ness Avenue and Pine Street and the torch -
> along with several runners - was unloaded from one of the cars. The
> runners, carrying the flame in pairs, then began to make their way
> north on Van Ness Avenue.
>
> The torch was handed off every half-block or so to a new pair of
> runners.
>
> 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 supporters 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 support and craning for good
> views beyond the police lines.
>
> Nancy Chan of San Francisco, with her son Christian, 4, ran over to
> the route from her house two blocks away when she heard that the route
> was along 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."
>
> Joan Woodaver, who works near Van Ness, saw on television that the
> route had altered, so she ran over with 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," said Woodaver, watching
> with her 12-year-old sons Jason and Jarron as the torch was trotted
> past her.
>
> Thirty pro-Tibetan demonstrators caught up to the torch near Francisco
> Street, where several got in the way of one of the motorcycle police
> officers and were knocked over.
>
> One woman in particular went down hard after a police officer was
> unable to steer away quickly enough and hit her with his front tire.
>
> Early this morning, thousands of people gathered along the planned
> route on the Embarcadero, with pro-torch demonstrators facing off
> against protesters hoping to draw attention to the nation's human
> rights record. 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, many of the protesters carried Tibetan flags and preached
> independence for the country. Others were on hand to support Burma or
> rail against China's backing of the Sudanese government in its war in
> Darfur.
>
> Some of the most heated exchanges occurred in Willie Mays Plaza near
> the ballpark. But as it became clear that the torch would not be
> headed down the Embarcadero, tension also began to rise in the big
> crowd assembled in front of the Ferry Building.
>
> Around 2:15 p.m., flag-waving pro-China demonstrators attacked a 7-
> foot-wide pro-Tibet sign hanging on the Ferry Building. A man tried to
> restore the sign, but a swarm of opponents surrounded him. Another man
> rushed from the crowd and grabbed one of the China flags from a
> protester, triggering a pushing match between the two sides.
> Eventually, the squabble dissipated and a pro-China man grabbed the
> Tibet sign and tore it clean off the wall.
>
> Police said clashes related to the protests had been minor. But the
> situation was tense for hours before the run, and at least one person
> was detained in front of the ballpark this morning. A few hours later,
> a confrontation between the two sides escalated to a physical
> violence, when a San Francisco man named Kevin Johnson, 48, walked
> into a crowd of torch supporters and began yelling, "Communists!"
>
> The crowd encircled Johnson and the confrontation escalated when
> Johnson pulled a Chinese flag off a man's backpack. Then, someone
> grabbed Johnson's throat and another person punched him in the face
> before police intervened and walked him to safety.
>
> Earlier, pro-Tibetan protesters in the area complained that they had
> been pepper sprayed, although they didn't know who did it. San
> Francisco resident Matt Winger, 22, flushed his red eyes with water
> and said, "It stings like hell."
>
> There were some questions this morning about whether police were
> allowing protesters to access Justin Herman Plaza, but officials said
> they were simply warning people that they could not guarantee their
> safety because of the large number of pro-torch demonstrators gathered
> there.
>
> Chronicle staff writers Jaxon VanDerbeken, Wyatt Buchanan, John
> Koopman, Michael Cabanatuan, Robert Selna, Kevin Fagan, Michael
> Taylor, Reyhan Harmanci and Meredith May contributed to this report. E-
> mail the writers at wbucha...@
sfchronicle.com, cv...@
sfchronicle.com,
> rgor...@
sfchronicle.com and mla...@
sfchronicle.com.
