Posted on 04/07/2008 4:59:50 AM PDT by Red in Blue PA
(CNN) -- The Olympic torch has been extinguished by officials and put on a bus during the Paris leg of its relay amid anti-China protests, The Associated Press has reported. The incident came one day after anti-Chinese demonstrators made its journey through London more like running the gauntlet than a journey of celebration.
An anti-China protester is restrained by French police before Monday's Olympic torch relay begins in Paris
1 of 3more photos » Thousands of French police are on duty to protect the Olympic torch after it departed from the Eiffel Tower at around 1030 GMT (0630 ET). It is then due to be carried through the boulevards of the French capital amid threats of protests.
Extremely tight security, however, could not stop determined human-rights activists in London Sunday from disrupting the torch relay several times, with UK police making more than two dozen arrests.
Paris police have conceived a security plan to keep the torch in a safe "bubble," during its 17-mile (28 km) journey, with a multi-layered protective force to surround the torch as it moves along the route.
French torchbearers will be encircled by several hundred officers, some in riot police vehicles and on motorcycles, others on rollerblades and on foot. Chinese torch escorts will immediately surround the torchbearer, with Paris police on rollerblades moving around them. French firefighters in jogging shoes will encircle the officers on rollerblades while motorcycle police will form the outer layer of security
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
I had to check the source because this sounded so much like a joke.
Ok, back to Athens & start over!
I guess the same lefty PC thought process that awarded the games to the USSR in 1980 was used to give China the honor this year. How ludicrous.
Kill the flame for good. Millions being spent running a ridiculous flame around the world. Don’t the olympic game hosts have a book of matches?
LOL!
LOL...police on rollerblades ? What a great idea ! If you want to get away from them, just run across the grass....
Frankly, I’d like to see the US completely boycott these games. Not only for political reasons, but for the health of our athletes.
China is such a filthy country, but for some reason, they’re not held to any environmental standards - or any other standards for that matter.
IMO, the Olympics are crap anyway - not even worth watching.
Wow, after years of hearing American liberals with their mindless whining, I actually feel like another country is hated more than the United States!
meanwhile, the real torch is being sent in a van, protected by the UN, and deputy barney fife.
No kidding. That was my first thought. I really thought they would go back and try again. Instead they just used a match? I've lost respect for the modern Olympics. Now it's just silly promotionalism.
Did somebody say Paris leg?
The Olympic Torch Relay History: A Tradition Started by the Nazis?
Handling the Bitter Reality that Many of the Classic Olympic Traditions Were Started by Decree of the Third Reich, Hitler and Goebbels
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/692365/the_olympic_torch_relay_history_a_tradition.html
foerthought would have loaded the torch with those trick birthday candles that you ccan’t blow out
find the van carrying the
backup flame
.........................
where are the suicide bombers when we need them
Does it surprise anyone that 3000 French police couldn’t protect 1 guy carrying a torch from 500 protestors?
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