Climbers scale Golden Gate Bridge to protest Olympic torch run

Three people protesting China’s human rights record and the impending arrival of the Olympic torch climbed the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco on Monday and tied a Tibetan flag and two banners to its cables.
(Paul Sakuma/Associated Press)

Three pro-Tibet protesters climbed the suspension cables of the Golden Gate Bridge on Monday to protest the coming arrival of the Beijing Olympics torch relay in San Francisco.

The protesters, tethered together on the suspension cables halfway up the bridge, unfurled two giant banners reading “One World, One Dream” and “Free Tibet ‘O8″ — a play on the official slogan of the Beijing Games. One of the climbers also displayed a Tibetan flag.

The climbers spent about three hours suspended more than 25 metres above traffic before descending around 1:15 p.m. PT to be taken into police custody, the CBC’s Chris Brown reported from the city.

The climbers are all American citizens and supporters of Students for a Free Tibet, said Tsering Lama, a spokeswoman for the activist group.

Four other members, including a Canadian student who attends the University of British Columbia, were arrested at the site, Lama told CBC News.

All seven face charges related to trespassing, conspiracy and causing a public nuisance, CNN reported.

The torch is due to arrive Wednesday in San Francisco, its only North American stop on a tour that has been marked by protests against China’s policies toward Tibet and Sudan.

The highly visible protest has forced San Francisco officials to make some changes to the torch procession, and police said they were taking “extraordinary precautions,” the CBC’s Brown said.

“All in all, it’s going to be a very sizable police presence,” he said.

Last leg of Olympic torch run cancelled in Paris

Meanwhile Monday, the last segment of the Olympic torch run through Paris was cancelled after thousands of anti-China protesters repeatedly prompted officials to stop the procession, extinguish the flame and put the torch aboard a bus.

Despite beefed-up security, the relay had to be suspended at least five times as demonstrators threatened the torch. A vehicle carried the Olympic flame for the last part of the route but a runner was allowed to carry the torch for the final five metres into a sports stadium in the south of Paris.

At least 28 people were arrested during the relay as thousands of people including demonstrators lined the torch’s route through the city streets.

The protesters, tethered together on the suspension cables halfway up the bridge, unfurled two giant banners reading “One World, One Dream” and “Free Tibet ‘O8″ — a play on the official slogan of the Beijing Games. One of the climbers also displayed a Tibetan flag.

The climbers spent about three hours suspended more than 25 metres above traffic before descending around 1:15 p.m. PT to be taken into police custody, the CBC’s Chris Brown reported from the city.

The climbers are all American citizens and supporters of Students for a Free Tibet, said Tsering Lama, a spokeswoman for the activist group.

Four other members, including a Canadian student who attends the University of British Columbia, were arrested at the site, Lama told CBC News.

All seven face charges related to trespassing, conspiracy and causing a public nuisance, CNN reported.

The torch is due to arrive Wednesday in San Francisco, its only North American stop on a tour that has been marked by protests against China’s policies toward Tibet and Sudan.

The highly visible protest has forced San Francisco officials to make some changes to the torch procession, and police said they were taking “extraordinary precautions,” the CBC’s Brown said.

“All in all, it’s going to be a very sizable police presence,” he said.

Police brutality/irrationality/stupidity/ at UBC

watch?v=gIjXZ2cAoFw

Today a peaceful celebration in defence of public space at UBC was violently quashed by the RCMP. This press release was written on April 5th at 1 a.m. with limited available information. All the events discussed herein have been either captured by camera or can be corroborated by multiple eyewitness accounts.

On Friday, April 4th, UBC students loosely associated with Trek Park and SDS held “Knoll Aid 2.0,” a musical celebration of public space on campus. Knoll Aid 2.0 was part of a larger campaign against the commercialization of campus, the demolition of the grassy knoll, and the development of a $40 MILLION underground bus-loop. Knoll Aid 2.0 was an overwhelmingly peaceful event and featured local musicians, free food, and three simultaneous petition drives. It was attended by primarily UBC students.
Though Knoll Aid 2.0 began at noon on Friday, at around 8:00/8:30 RCMP and the Fire department arrived at the area known as “Trek Park” (a liberated space near the grassy knoll) because some students had created a small bonfire. Citing a bylaw violation, the RCMP approached one student, Stefanie Ratjen, in a rather aggressive manner and began speaking with her. After a dialogue, the contents of which are still unknown, Stefanie was grabbed by an RCMP officer and thrown to the ground, pinned, and handcuffed. Her face was literally shoved in a puddle of mud while an RCMP officer sat on top of her. After this uncalled act of police aggression, fellow students came to her aid. One musician was immediately arrested for questioning the RCMP officer’s treatment of Stefanie. For approx. two hours students formed a chain to protest RCMP action and several students attempted to peacefully negotiate the release of Stefanie and the musician (whose name at this point is unknown). During this time approx. 30 RCMP cars with officers from across Vancouver and the lower mainland including Richmond came to UBC. Campus security was also present and threatened to discipline students if they did not cooperate with the RCMP. Police officers systematically attempted to break the human chain students had formed by pushing, shoving and kicking. RCMP officers randomly arrested any student present at the scene including Bahram Norouzi who was arrested in the middle of a CTV interview. At around 10:30 p.m. on approx. 25 students were arrested and detained. They were brought to a Main and Hastings detention center where they presently still remain.

This press release would like to draw attention to the conduct of the RCMP. A university is intended for students, not the police. Upon entering student space, the police should have had the decency, at the very least, to deal with students in a respectful and dignified manner. Instead, RCMP officers were highly aggressive and belligerent. RCMP officers committed gross abuses of power by, for example, threatening to release dogs on students and pointing taser guns at students that were already pinned down to the floor. The actions of RCMP officers are testament of police misconduct, if not brutality. We demand the release of all students arrested and demand that all charges be dropped. Furthermore, we demand an inquiry of the RCMP’s actions in relation to this event and the treatment of students. Lastly, we demand that UBC administration defends student’s rights to a peaceful protest.

To repeat, this was a peaceful celebration/concert in defence of public space. The RCMP had no right to violently quash a peaceful student protest.

This guy is great!!

Students: A challenge for you

This guy is dead on…

21st Century Imperialism

IMPERIALISM…. the conceptual reality of conquering foreign territory in the name of political and economic dominance, for the desire of ‘empire building’, requires at its most fundamental level a subdued racial prejudice. One of the most dominant political forces of our time, imperialism has been, and continues to be, in a state of perpetual change. Once blatantly obvious, imperialism has survived through its ability to evolve. Imperialism is a well oiled machine that realizes it can no longer prevail unless it works in the shadows, behind the scenes; whereas once you sent your explorers overseas, dominated local tribes with your military might, established colonies, exploited natural resources and created new markets, we now send our bankers to G7 meetings or WTO forums and simply create global economic policies that continue to serve the same empire building objectives that traditional forms of imperialism did (prosperity for the powerful at the expense of ‘the other’). What traditional imperialism and newer forms of economic and political dominance have in common is a reliance on an inherent form of racism that allows the population of the prosperous nations to feel a sense of greater entitlement than the people who populate the countries we continue to exploit. Fanatical patriotism erodes our ability to feel empathy for ‘the other’; separated by seas, by differences in culture and belief, by skin colour, these differences are perpetuated by imaginary social barriers that the ‘empire builder’ has constructed over time and engrained in our culture. How is it that 3 families can have more wealth than the poorest 48 countries combined? How is it that we in the west do not feel a moral sense of obligation to our brothers and sisters in Bolivia, in Nigeria, in Lithuania, in Burma? Patriotism is so deep and engrained that to question the direction and the moral fibre of one’s nation is to be ‘unpatriotic’. Without social support networks to reinforce one’s convictions, it is very difficult to stand out in a crowd where your beliefs, ethics and morality will see you chastised. Blind faith in the direction and leadership in our leaders without questioning the consequences of their actions on our country or on the countries of others is anything but patriotic; we need to encourage debate, we need to encourage and challenge people to seek a new direction, we need to encourage people to realize that dissent in the name of real progress is a fundamental responsibility for every citizen fortunate enough to live within a democracy.

Peace and Love to all,

D-Fungus