Olympic protests going too far

By: Ian Rose | April 9th, 2008

Please forgive the fact that this has nothing to do with the UEFA Cup. Later today, I’ll talk all about tomorrow’s matches, and there are some great ones. This is a bit of an off-topic rant, but if you can’t do that on a blog, where can you? Besides, it’s international and it’s sports-related and that’s close enough for me.

The Olympic torch and its controversial tour of the world has left Europe and is coming to San Francisco, thus joining one of the biggest protest issues in the world with one of the most protest-happy places on Earth. What could go wrong?

I’d like to start by saying that I fully support the protest of the Beijing Olympics and the Olympic flame tour. China has tarnished the name of the Olympics by using the Games as a public relations scheme, and at the same time, an excuse to not only continue, but in many cases increase the oppression of dissidents and the Tibetan people. The protesters lining the streets of the torch route carrying signs and Tibetan flags have all of my sympathy.

Then there’s the other sort. The sort that throw cups of hot coffee at former Olympians for being involved in the tour. The sort that jump through the now-ridiculous security to get in a punch or body check at the person holding the torch. Let me be clear. If you resort to this kind of tactic, it is not protest … it’s assault, and it not only does nothing to support the cause you claim to represent, but it also distracts attention away from that very cause. Your actions become the story.

We just saw the passing of the fortieth anniversary of the murder of Martin Luther King, Jr., a pioneer not only in the American civil rights movement, but in the practice of nonviolent protest. Rather than take on the methods of groups like the Black Panthers, Dr. King realized that violent action would play directly into the hands of his opponents. Rather than spreading the idea that a whole population was being oppressed and mistreated by their government, it would ensure that the news would be dominated by scenes of violence, and that the issues would be lost. I’m not saying this is the same situation - not at all - but there are parallels. I’m all for ruining the Chinese government’s propaganda parade, but the way to do that is to keep the focus on the issues of repression and violence by that government, not distracting from it by creating violence of our own.

There are those that have defended the more hostile protests by saying that when faced with a violent and oppressive force, like the Chinese government, you have to “fight fire with fire”. It’s a term that is as overused as it is inappropriate. Whoever came up with the term “fight fire with fire” was probably a piss-poor fireman. In most cases, it just doesn’t work. I’m not saying that signs and flags are going to make China change its mind about its policies on human rights … but neither are a few fights and bruises, especially when those bruises are being handed out to people that most likely agree in principle with the people hitting or throwing things at them. I just hope that the more hostile of the protesters (a very small minority) remember that the people they are claiming to stand up for - the Tibetans - have a tradition based on peace and nonviolence. Make no mistake, the Dalai Lama does not want people hurting other people to “represent” the rights of Tibet.

Okay, rant over. For those of you who may be involved in either watching or protesting the Olympic torch tour, be careful out there, and just keep your head about you and your goals clear. That’s all I ask.

Like I said, I’ll be on later with the previews of tomorrow’s UEFA Cup action. Except for Zenit-Leverkusen, they could all go either way, so it should be a fantastic day of football. Stay tuned.