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Torch leaves S.F. after surprise route shift

Rachel Gordon, Tanya Schevitz, Kevin Fagan,Marisa Lagos, Chronicle Staff Writers

Wednesday, April 9, 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 the city and mostly relieved runners and officials on the other.

The finger-pointing is bound to go on for days about whether changing the route 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 a national 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, 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 support and delight at seeing the torch go by.

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 suddenly going to be 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."

Likewise, Joan Woodaver, who works near Van Ness, saw on television that the route had altered and also 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.

A tense beginning

The morning portended 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 supporters 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 pushing 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 support 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 supporters if they knew about Beijing's backing for the Sudanese government in its war in Darfur. 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 supporters had secured permits - an apparent misunderstanding of the city's official policy to allow all protesters at the site.

The clashes only got more intense from then on, with crowds of more than 1,000 surging up and down the Embarcadero chanting, "Free Tibet!" or - less often - "Leave the torch alone!"

Vehicles blocked

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, with some protesters blocking vehicles they thought contained the torch and others yelling at and pushing 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 torch flames - and they drove with that flame 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 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.

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 acknowledgement at San Francisco International Airport.

The torch finally headed out of the city around 3:30 p.m. and arrived at the airport 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. Airport 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 report 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 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, 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.