These are from the Olympic Torch Run protests Wednesday, April 9th 2008 in San Francisco, CA. This is not the start of the report - if you got a direct link to this page you might want to go back to the start.
So the first thing to note as you read all of this is probably nobody who is pictured actually saw the torch. They brought the torch on a totally different route than advertised and then drove it directly to the airport, skipping the closing ceremonies.
Even on the subway you could see folks with flags and such.
She was handing out flyers that were basically a sign on one side and information on the other. The save Darfur folks gave out 1,000 free t-shirts before running out.
This guy was brave - he was surrounded and the cop tried to pull him away for his own safety and yelled at the cop for quite a while before letting himself be led off. The police generally did a great job, by the way, but it helps that people on both side, while very emotional, were extremely peaceful. There were almost no arrests.
Riot gear ready to go.
Handing out signs. Everything's really just getting started here. Notice the sign on the left - you could fill in your own thing - San Francisco is very into identity politics. Watch for those throughout the report.
One of the many, many little sub marches wandering around. This one had maybe 200 people in it.
I'm not necessarily going to comment on every sign unless it needs some context. Most of them are either so obvious as to not need descriptions or so obscure I don't know what their point is either.
There were three banner carrying airplanes flying around - this is one of the banners.
There were little clusters of green clad Darfur folks around - I didn't take huge numbers of pictures of them since they were basically all identical, but you get the idea.
Remember, this guy bought the clothing, came out, and no torch.
There were all kinds of events and groups and activities and a band and a big screen in the Ferry building area (near what was supposed to be the end of the run and the closing ceremonies).
That big ugly thing in the background is public art - the story goes it was almost removed by accident after the earthquake until locals informed the feds it was supposed to look like that.
You would see lots of this kind of thing - people on all sides had American flags.
Still enjoying yourself? Go on to page three.
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