Repost: Olympic Torch Protests in SF

This is a message I originally sent out to friends on April 11, 2008. With the Olympics just underway, I thought that today would be a good time to repost here:

Chris and I went to try to see the Olympic Torch yesterday. McCovey Cove, where it was to start, is only a couple blocks from our condo. It was quite an experience!

The first photos are from the assembly area at McCovey cove. Then we went across the bridge to the ballpark where there was much more protest action. As you can see in the photos, the China and Tibet factions were very intermixed throughout in fairly small groups. The most heard chants were “Free Tibet!” answered by “Liars!” from the pro-Chinese. We saw some heated discussions, but no violence. The San Francisco police had a huge presence and seemed to be doing a good job at keeping order without really interfering. We only saw one person taken away. (From later news reports I don’t think he was actually arrested.)

Eventually, it became clear that the torch was not going to be going along the original route. The most popular rumor at the time was that it went by boat to the Ferry Building. (Which turned out not to be true.) So thousands of people started walking there down the Embarcadero. We stayed there for a while and then headed home. By the time we made it back to the ballpark, traffic was flowing again and it looked like any normal afternoon.

The impact of mobile communications technology on the event was really interesting to me. Everyone had cameras and many had video, so certainly absolutely nothing was going to happen that the world wouldn’t see. People were on phones and laptops trying to get information on what was happening and where the torch was going. I posted more than 15 updates to my Twitter (http://twitter.com/johnhat) while we were there. And it was fascinating to read what others were seeing, hearing, and doing right in the same moment.