The Wardman Wire

One sport that the Chinese Olympic Torch Escorts seem to excel at is All-in-Wrestling with members of the public.

Here we have someone protesting the behaviour of the Chinese Government in Tibet and the flunkies in blue pyjamas (an ironic take on critical bloggers, perhaps?) demonstrating their world (or at least demonstrator) beating wrestling skills.

As it said in the Independent:

Shortly after Konnie Huq finished her brief leg of London’s farcical Olympic torch relay on Sunday, she called a friend on her mobile phone. “Did you see those blokes in the blue tracksuits?” the former Blue Peter presenter whispered down the line. “They were bloody aggressive, weren’t they?”

Huq had just been involved in a tussle with a protester, so it was surprising that what appeared to concern her most was the praetorian guard of Chinese officials who formed a wall around her during the short dash, rather than the demonstrator intent on wrestling the Olympic torch from her grasp.

But for any of the athletes, protesters, journalists and even police who found themselves guided, barged or fighting with this particularly committed group of Chinese minders, the identity and function of the “boys in blue tracksuits” was of paramount importance.

Little is known about the mysterious guards accompanying the flame on its “harmonious journey”, apart from the fact that they are well-trained security officers under the remit of the Beijing Games co-ordinators, who have sweeping political powers in China.

Or to put it another way:

Why are Chinese security guards loose on our streets physically intercepting protesters in the presence of large numbers of our own policemen?

Or even:

Why on earth were these men even allowed into the country, given the record of the Chinese police?

Tags: beijing olympics 2008, it’s a human rights knockout