This  morning’s news showed the Olympic torch finally leaving San Francisco.  It also shows the priorities of those charged with protecting the safety of Americans and upholding the Constitution.  Somebody in San Francisco decided that it was a good idea to have a massive police presence to protect the Olympic torch.

In contrast, the streets were lined with people protesting human rights abuses perpetrated by the Chinese, hosts of the games, on the people of Tibet.  Videos showed police clashing with protesters.

I put this on the scale.  On the one side, the Olympic torch, an inanimate object representing the games to be held in Beijing, making its way without incident through San Francisco.  On the other, American’s exercising their constitutional right to protest human rights violations perpetrated by China against Tibet. 

In the middle, a whole lot of cops determined to stop the American protesters and protect the torch.

I think somebody in San Francisco needs a civics lesson, and the police were busily protecting the wrong thing.  Wouldn’t it be nice if our police protected the right of the American’s protesting human rights abuses rather than a torch reflecting a sports event held by the human rights abusers?

If China wanted to avoid worldwide controversy in anticipation of their first hosted Olympic Games, perhaps it would have been better to avoid engaging in abuse in Tibet rather than rely on San Francisco officials to put their torch ahead of Americans exercising their constitutional rights.

San Francisco officials must be confused about who they represent and what their job is.  Next time, have the cops protect the protesters from the torch.

And for those of you who enjoy games, play “Torch Run” and see if you can avoid the protesters and get the torch to Beijing!

H/T PrawfsBlawg