By Emma Lierley
At a press conference Thursday afternoon, Chief of Police Heather Fong addressed the city’s decision to change the Olympic Torch route, claiming that it was a spontaneous decision and that there was no pre-planned contingency.
Fong said that SFPD officers had been monitoring the situation along The Embarcadero since 8am Wednesday morning and as more and more people showed up, and as “groups of opposing views started verbally confronting each other” the higher-ups began contemplating a change in route.
Stating that an incident at Bryant and Embarcadero around 12:30, in which a charter bus “moving certain [Olympic] items” was stopped by “a very large group” of protestors, influenced the decision to change to route. According to Fong, a false report came through that the bus had run over protestors, which was a major factor to change the route.
“I saw the crowd, I saw the bus, and at that point we started to move away from the Embarcadero,” Fong said.
However, this reporter observed that from 12:30 until 1pm, there were no more than twenty peaceful protestors who had laid themselves in front of the bus and covered themselves with Tibetan flags, with only a line of four cops protecting it. By 1:20, all protestors around the bus were gone.
Fong also said that large groups of people along The Embarcadero who were unwilling to move when told by police influenced the decision to change the route as well.
Despite reports that demonstrations along the planned route were by and large peaceful, Fong stated that it was “very clear there was no way to safely go down Embarcadero.”
She estimated that roughly 500 to 600 SFPD officers were called out, together with 350 officers from other departments around the Bay area, and representatives from federal agencies as well.
There were five arrests made yesterday, all settled in citations, and no injuries.