Utah Olympic Public Safety Commander Robert Flowers said potential Olympic protesters are becoming more vocal and sending more letters to officials, although he didn’t say which groups are making threats. He said, “Almost on a daily basis we get threatening letters or requests where hundreds or maybe even thousands are coming to protest things such as the homeless. We have the animal rights activists that seem to be very visible right now making threats about the rodeo”.
“I don’t want to get into the particulars of the letters”, he said. “But you get things like, ‘we’re going to disrupt the opening ceremonies’ or ‘we’re going to disrupt the traffic flow’”.
While the letters are coming with more frequency, Flowers said they don’t “cause us great concern”.
Flowers added, “the protest issue came to light about a year ago. Then it died down, and then it’s reared its head again. We can support the protests. We have to provide protest zones, that’s what our country’s founded upon. What I’m concerned about though is that they (might) not honour their agreements, and we have prepared a response for that. We will react swiftly, but we will react appropriately also”.
Flowers said it’s still hard to say how many protesters will descend on Utah for the Games.
Salt Lake City is asking that protesters stay inside about a half-dozen “protest zones” strategically placed downtown and near Rice-Eccles Stadium, home to opening and closing ceremonies. Many groups have complained about the protest zones, which they argue are either too small or not close enough to their desired targets.
Homeless advocates, including JEDI Women of Salt Lake City and the Philadelphia-based Kensington Welfare Rights Union, have said that hundreds or thousands of protesters will march to the opening ceremonies Feb. 8 whether or not they are given a permit.
Cheri Honkala, spokeswoman for the Poor People’s Economy on Human Rights Campaign said, “it’s not about breaking the rule, but the last thing these families have is their voice. We intend to be peaceful and non-violent, but we will march and we will raise our voices. We’ve set out a route for our march and we will take that route, regardless”.
