Check Bob Brigham’s photos from the torch relay and the associated protests over the flip.

UPDATE (by Dave): The phalanx of security around this torch relay is ridiculous.  You probably can’t even see the runners unless you’re in a helicopter.  Mayor Newsom truncated the relay from 8 miles to 3 just a few hours before the parade started.  Not sure why he should have bothered at all.  Hundreds of security forces forming a human chain – must be proud, eh, San Francisco?

UPDATE (by Dave): A friend emails:

i just stood out on embarcadero for over an hour while the cops told us “it’s coming, it’s coming right along here.”  meanwhile the torch was already headed at its ponderous pace down van ness.  fucking pissed.

Yes, the route apparently keeps changing.  Apparently the protesters got fairly close to the relay a couple minutes ago, halting it for a short while.  It’s kind of a cat-and-mouse game right now.

UPDATE (by Dave): The torch is not headed anywhere near Justin Herman Plaza, that’s pretty clear.  It’s around Crissy Field right now, headed west toward the GG Bridge.  And I guess there’s an amphibious vehicle out in front of the relay runners.  That torch may be getting wet.

UPDATE (by Dave): Another, better feed here.  Willie Brown was supposed to be a TORCH BEARER for this thing?  It looks like they’re headed to the bridge.

UPDATE (by Dave): AP: “Closing ceremony for torch relay will take place at an undisclosed location.”  Will Dick Cheney be lighting the torch with his eyes, then?

It’s a good thing that the people of San Francisco were honored with the ability to have this ceremony hidden from them.

UPDATE (by Brian): Christine Pelosi has a good post at HuffPo:

For all the big talk of putting on a show, all that free speech obviously overwhelmed the authorities. Instead of braving a peaceful gauntlet of freedom fighters, the torch was secreted away to an alternate route. Encased by police and barricaded by a SWAT team, the torch movement was barely visible to a TV crowd. And what is the ironic takeaway as we await the rescheduled, secluded “closing” ceremonies? The protesters did not extinguish the Olympic flame today — the authorities did.

Supervisor Chris Daly

Stopping a Bus:

Look at all the media punked by the closing ceremonies beyond moved:

Luke Thomas:

Here’s a live feed of the events in San Francisco today, courtesy Students for a Free Tibet. Check it out over the flip.

If you’re on the parade route you’re not likely to see anything, because police officers will form a human shield around the torch carriers.  Which makes you wonder why they’re bothering to do this at all.  The CHP and the US Secret Service are on hand as well.

We’ll have more as it happens…

UPDATE: The House just passed a resolution supporting Tibet and calling on China to end their crackdown.

Students for a Free Tibet has plenty more.

This just went up at the Gavel:

The Olympic Charter states that the goal of the Olympic games should be to promote ‘a peaceful society concerned with the preservation of human dignity.’ The Chinese government has failed to live up to the commitments it made before being awarded the Olympic games to improve its human rights situation. In fact, there is disturbing new evidence that it is conducting a broader crackdown on human rights in China and Tibet because of the Olympics.

For the next four months, the International Olympic Committee and Chinese officials will parade the Olympic torch through dozens of countries and even through Tibet. The torch will be met by politicians and heads-of-state from all over the world along a ‘journey of harmony.’ It is the Chinese government that is making the Olympic torch relay a political event.

Freedom-loving people around the world are vigorously protesting because of the crackdown in Tibet and Beijing’s support for the regime in Sudan and the military junta in Burma. The people are making a significant statement that the Olympic ideals of peace and harmony should apply to all people, including those in Tibet and Darfur.

San Francisco is blessed by a large and vibrant Chinese American community. As San Franciscans, we embrace the diversity of our community and we value the contributions made in every corner of our great city. We also value free expression, and this week, many will exercise this right by demonstrating against the Olympic torch. I urge all those who protest to do so peacefully and respectfully. I commend those who speak out for their commitment to shining a light on the causes that challenge the conscience of the world.

Good on the Speaker.  She has been a tireless advocate for human rights and has showed real leadership on China and these games.  Glad to see this statement from her.

San Francisco authorities are justifiably nervous about providing a platform for Chinese propaganda at tomorrow’s Olympic torch relay.  The number and variety of protests are great and go beyond protesting the situation in Tibet.  The Falun Gong will call for religious freedom inside China.  Human Rights Watch seeks to call attention to China’s deplorable human rights record.  The San Francisco Bay Area Darfur Coalition will be massing to call for China’s end to its material support for genocide in the Sudan (you can hear Ben Cohen of Ben & Jerry’s talking about this here).  There are all sorts of reasons to be concerned for China’s ascension to this position of prestige by hosting the Olympics.  And recent events along the global parade route, particularly from the pro-Tibet activists, are having a real impact.

As thousands of pro-Tibet protesters cut short the Olympic torch relay Monday in Paris, a new Zogby Interactive poll finds 70% of likely voters believe the International Olympic Committee was wrong to award this year’s summer Olympic Games to China because of its poor record on human rights. Dissatisfaction with the IOC’s choice is strong across the political spectrum, with 70% of Democrats and Republicans, and 68% of political independents who said they disagree with the decision to have China host the summer games. A Zogby Interactive poll conducted in May 2007 found 44% had a favorable opinion of the IOC’s decision to award the 2008 Summer Olympic Games to China, while 39% viewed the decision unfavorably.

So San Francisco ought to be concerned with the scope and force of protests tomorrow.  They actually should acknowledge them by canceling the parade.  What does it achieve?  Will San Francisco cover themselves in glory tomorrow?  The protesters will show that the entire city is a free speech zone, and they will show the importance and power of activism.  But the city will just be giving a platform to the Chinese to sanitize their image and whitewash the deplorable spots in their record.  There’s no reason for this and the potential for some ugly outcomes is growing.  

Authorities in San Francisco, which on Wednesday will host the only North American leg of the relay, said they had closely watched events in London on Sunday and in Paris.

“We have a lot of concerns,” said Sgt. Neville Gittens, a San Francisco police spokesman. “I don’t want to identify them, but this is not a contained route security-wise, and there are lots of opportunities for trouble. We’re watching what’s going on very closely and will make changes to our plans as we figure them out.”

Mayor Gavin Newsom met with Chinese officials in San Francisco on Monday to review security measures, which include requiring all rank-and-file police officers to report to work Wednesday. Meanwhile, at least two neighboring police departments have been asked to provide reinforcements, the California Highway Patrol will be on hand and the FBI is on standby, officials said.

I’m not sanguine about the prospects of this relay tomorrow.  London and Paris were just a prelude.

(Chris Daly is the George Costanza of SF politics, but his wife kicks ass and I think of him as a friend. I’ll be posting pics of the protest on Calitics as fast ss I can. – promoted by Bob Brigham)

Join me for an historic rally and march on Beijing’s Olympic Torch in solidarity with the people of Tibet.

Wednesday, April 9th, 12 Noon, Embarcadero near Market

Nearly two months ago, representatives from the Tibetan community began working with my office on a resolution for the Board of Supervisors. Tibetans were rightfully concerned that the People’s Republic of China (PRC) was using the Olympic Games in Beijing to gloss over their program of cultural genocide in Tibet. San Francisco would be the only stop in the US for the Torch Relay scheduled to make its way to Tibet this summer. On March 10th, Tibetan Uprising Day, I was set to introduce the resolution.

On the same day 300 brave monks set out from Drepung monastery outside of Lhasa on a protest march to Potala Palace in the heart of the city. The arrest of dozens of these monks led to further protests and uprising on the streets of Lhasa and other cities across Tibet. The Chinese government met these protests with a brutal crackdown, killing over 100 Tibetans and arresting hundreds of others in door-to-door raids.

This wicked turn of events in Tibet catapulted what would otherwise be a highly symbolic resolution into the national and international spotlight — drawing significant attention to San Francisco as we called out China’s abysmal human rights record – a laundry list of dirty abuses that extend from cultural genocide in Tibet to persecution of Falun Gong practitioners, from suppressing labor and environmental activists to stifling freedom of speech and press, and from militarily aiding genocide in Darfur to propping up a brutal dictatorship in Burma.

For months, Gavin Newsom had been working closely with top Chinese government officials on preparations for the torch event in San Francisco. For the PRC, the San Francisco leg of the relay had a unique importance due to our economic role in the Pacific Rim and for our significant Chinese population. For Gavin Newsom, the torch relay was a ready-made opportunity to elevate his national and international political stature.

But the veil of secrecy under which this planning took place became increasingly apparent as the Board’s resolution worked its way through the legislative process. Community groups and reporters alike were asking questions about the route and how protests would be handled. The answers were either not forthcoming (the route was not set) or the wrong ones (protests would be limited to “free speech zones”). Gavin Newsom also started to be asked about his position on human rights in China.

After the brutal crackdown in Tibet, it became increasingly difficult for Newsom to dodge these questions. One of Gavin’s political mentors, Nancy Pelosi, took a strong stance on the PRC’s crackdown, traveling to meet with the Dalai Lama in India.  She said, “If freedom loving people throughout the world do not speak out against China’s oppression in China and Tibet, we have lost all moral authority to speak on behalf of human rights anywhere in the world.” Pelosi’s actions challenged Newsom to act with conscience, but instead he opted for the same line used by George Bush — politics, including China’s crackdown in Tibet, should be kept separate from the Beijing Olympics.

But the notion that we can somehow separate politics from an international event on the scale of the Olympics is an impossible one, even if the Olympic Charter wasn’t dedicated to “promoting a peaceful society concerned with the preservation of human dignity.” The Olympic Games have been necessarily intertwined with our politics and history. This was especially the case with ’36 Berlin Games, ’68 Mexico City Games, and the boycott games of ’80 and ’84. While the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta had little international controversy, the local politics in Atlanta were very loaded. To make way for the Olympic Village, the oldest public housing development in the country was demolished. Thousands of people lost their homes while new laws were enacted to target homeless people. Meanwhile, the

Fortunately, Newsom ultimately backed down from China’s requests of limiting protest, although you’d think the Mayor of San Francisco would know better. The entire City of San Francisco is and will always be a “free speech zone.” San Francisco is known across the globe for protest, one of free speech’s most critical elements; from the General Strike in 1934 to the hundreds of thousands that flooded San Francisco streets to protest the invasion of Iraq in 2003. So when the Board of Supervisors resolved that the Olympic Torch should be received with alarm and protest, we did so fully cognizant of the role of protest in our great City.

As the Olympic Torch approaches, it is critical that we acknowledge the situation in Tibet has reached a crisis point and appreciate the gravity of our opportunity to highlight the issue on behalf of those inside Tibet who are being brutally persecuted by the Chinese government for expressing their desire for freedom. We must build on the message that’s been delivered by people of conscience in Athens, London, and now Paris.

Our March on the Torch will continue the peoples’ story of justice — that this torch should not be allowed to go through Tibet. We will apply even more pressure on the International Olympic Committee to end their complicity in China’s brutal crackdown and send a clear signal to the PRC that they need to clean up their human rights record and end their brutality in Tibet at once.

The cause of international human rights is coming to San Francisco on Wednesday. Please march with us to accept this enormous responsibility.

For up to the minute updates please text SFTORCH to 41411.

First in London and now in Paris, pro-Tibet protesters are disrupting the Olympic torch relay, and in the case of Paris, they extinguished the flame on numerous occasions and eventually canceled the presentation.

The flame reaches San Francisco for its only American stop on Wednesday.  Hundreds of police officers are expected to cover the parade, and the route has been shifted and altered in an attempt to outflank the expected protesters.  In advance of this, 3 protesters have placed signs on the top of the Golden Gate Bridge.  SFist has the story and is updating.

Update: (11:42): Nope, all three climbers are staying put. Those descending the suspension cables right now are just bridge workers. This will go on for a while.

KGO is reporting that seven people were arrested so far with regard to this protest.

Update (11:51 a.m.): More flags are being put up. The three protesters–one man, two women–still remain. Newcasters are desperate to know “how this could have happened?”

If you don’t have to go to the Golden Gate Bridge, don’t. It’s heavily congested. Obviously.

The situation is essentially that the International Olympic Committee currently has the most leverage over the Chinese government’s behavior in Tibet, and their human rights record generally.  And so these protests and potential boycotts, most recently discussed by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, make more than a symbolic statement.  Hillary Clinton is calling on George Bush to follow suit (which is unlikely, because he digs sports).  Hold Fast Blog has a lot more.

Wednesday should be very interesting.  Our SF bloggers will hopefully weigh in.