America the Free-- images from the Olympic torch run

[panader0]

I was struck by the image of two people running with the torch with literally hundreds of police around them. They had to hide in a warehouse to confuse the protestors, then change routes, then have a massive police presence. It sure didn't feel like the Olympic spirit. While I vehemently oppose China's position re Tibet or Darfur, I find a huge measure of hypocrisy to protest against China when the USA is conducting an illegal, immoral war in Iraq. And that's just the beginning. I think the Olympics are one of the few areas of international interaction that should be politics free.

[Dont_Bogart_the_Pretzel]

1. Looks like we are in a police state..

sad...very sad image to the world for us to be seen as.
Thanks "w":puke:

[tocqueville]

5. see thread and pics here

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x3134459

[elehhhhna]

6. should have just run it around on top of a tank

[Dont_Bogart_the_Pretzel]

9. or on top of an Hummer

[elehhhhna]

11. not enough reinforcement. they need a tank.

lol

[eppur_se_muova]

12. WTF is Tom Delay's name doing in your sig ...

OH! I had to put my reading glasses on! :rofl: Love it!

[MonkeyFunk]

2. Well

the torch wouldn't need any protection if they just rounded up and imprisoned all the protesters. You know, like they do in China.

[panader0]

4. Agreed. and understood. I just didn't like the way it looked.

[MonkeyFunk]

7. I don't get all the complaining about this today

to my mind, it was a big victory for free speech. The protests got widespread coverage, nobody was hurt, and China was shamed. Good, good, good.

[ronnykmarshall]

10. and no one was hurt.

I had some scary moment while my best girl was out on patrol w/ the SF sherrif's dept. She was texting me all day. And at one point they had to go into the croud at Embarc and I was freaking out.

But things seem to be OK right now.

[rockymountaindem]

13. Right on n/.t

[elehhhhna]

8. Just club and shoot 'em. It's the one thing China and Cheney totally agree on.

[uppityperson]

3. I'm hoping that people get enthused to protest the USA/Iraq stuff.

Give enough media attention, would be nice to see people get jazzed up by this protest and start protesting mrbush's occupation.

[Igel]

14. From what I heard, it was ironically appropriate.

They've managed to China-up the way the torch is running: Heavy police present, secrecy, double-dealing, all to preserve the image of a nice, pure, idealistic event that serves a nationalistic purpose.

As for the hypocrisy, I'm able to be concerned about more than one thing, thank you. Nor do I require that people protesting be morally pure ... and I certainly don't require that all the fellow citizens of people protesting also be morally pure before they can protest.

Look at it this way: Do you like what the US did to the Indians? No? It was horrible?

Do you want to stand by while pretty much the same thing happens to another group of people, all because you can't get over the guilt of other people sharing the same nationality?