Torch Recap

The flame is on its way to Buenos Aires. The closing ceremony was not televised. Mayor Newsom was just on the local media (KNTV NBC 11) explaining what happened.

When the bus with the Chinese delegation was stopped by the protesters this morning, along with the public walking down the middle of Embarcadero, the city police told the mayor that they couldn't guarantee public safety.

When the torch went into the warehouse and didn't emerge, it was because they were trying to decide if they could change the route our if they should cancel the event.

The mayor felt that protecting the runners was the most important task in making it a successful event. He felt that allowing peaceful demonstrations was also important to allow.

In fact, there were people in support of China as well as people protesting China over Tibet and its human rights violations. All were able to peacefully coexist in the same area with only a few arrests.

What is interesting is that the police never made a move to stop the people walking down the Embarcadero or to remove the protesters laying down in front of the bus. It raised suspicions that the entire thing was planned to not take place along the Embarcadero.

Here are my thoughts.

1. It was successful in that people were allowed to peacefully protest. That showed China that there isn't necessarily something to fear by allowing people to demonstrate. I doubt it will penetrate China's leaders, but they were exposed to peaceful demonstrations that didn't resort to violence. Once again the city has shown it can allow peaceful protests without violence.

2. It was a success for the torch bearers who were allowed to run through the city with the torch.

3. It was a success for the Olympics - the flame didn't go out.

4. It was a failure for San Franciscans. It was San Franciscans who paid for the police and planning to allow the Chinese to bring the torch here. It was San Franciscans who were denied the opportunity to see the torch, the opening and closing ceremonies. Only the truncated opening ceremony was allowed to be televised as planned. From that point on, the Mayor failed his public.

Mayor Newsom failed his task by failing to work with the media to allow us better coverage of the torch run, as well as adequate crowd control so the event could be held safely to allow the public to view the torch.

There are ways to work with the media to allow adequate coverage. You can have a shared camera feed in front of the runners. You can have them sign contracts to not report details until a certain point. All those and more tactics have been used to report in war. Why not use them here where public safety may require changes on the fly? Instead, there was chaotic coverage and no run-along cameras to show the torch runners up close. They have no decent record of their run.

San Francisco's Police Department has problems controlling crowds. Cities like New York can handle crowds without a problem, but San Francisco had to cancel Halloween in the Castro last year because the police couldn't or wouldn't employ adequate crowd control techniques used by others. The city would rather cancel events than learn to handle them.

If the police failure to keep the Embarcadero streets free of people wasn't preplanned, it only demonstrates the department's incompetence when it comes to crowds. It amazes me how we can have large demonstrations without problems, but can't handle crowds in small areas, such as at the closing ceremony.

It was a mixed bag today. Over all, the real losers are the Tibetans and San Franciscans who have to pay the tab for today's largely failed Olympic torch run.