Apr 8, 2008 7:38 pm US/Pacific
Security Restricitions On GG Bridge After Protests
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS 5 / AP / BCN) ―
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Anti-China protesters hang banners as they scaled the cables of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Security was tightened on the Golden Gate Bridge and elsewhere around San Francisco on Tuesday as officials prepared for massive protests of China's crackdown in Tibet during the Olympic torch's only North American stop on its journey to Beijing.
Officials were to continue checking the bags of all pedestrians and bike riders hoping to cross the Golden Gate Bridge for the next few days after seven protesters of the Olympic Torch relay were arrested Monday for climbing or assisting others in climbing the bridges' towers.
Authorities said they would check pedestrians' bags large enough to hold banners or signs most likely through Wednesday because the seven people arrested Monday either climbed or helped others
climb the towers of the bridge to unfurl banners that read "One World, One Dream, Free Tibet 08" around 10:30 a.m.
The protesters were located on the east side of the bridge, according to the California Highway Patrol.
All sidewalks leading to the Golden Gate Bridge will be monitored by officers, Golden Gate Bridge Sgt. Bill Sangregory said.
"If you decline to have (your bag) checked, you won't be allowed on the sidewalk," Sangregory said.
Nothing suspicious has been reported on the bridge since the arrests Monday.
"Everything's been smooth; people are cooperating," Sangregory said.
Meantime, prosecutors said Tuesday that they would charge the three protestors who scaled the bridge— Mac Sutherlin, 30, and Duane Martinez, 27, both of Sausalito, and Hannah Strange, 29, of Oakland— with three misdemeanors each.
District attorney's office spokeswoman Connie Chan said Sutherlin, Martinez and Strange will be charged with climbing on a bridge without authority, a violation of the street and highway code; as well as two penal code violations: being a public nuisance, and resisting arrest or interfering with a peace officer.
The charges could bring possible penalties of county jail time and/or a fine.
The trio along with four other protestors -- Tashi Sharzur, 47, of San Mateo; Alexandra Taub, 22, of Vancouver, Canada; Thomas Parkin, 38, of San Francisco; and Leslie Kaup, 38, of St. Paul, Minn. -- who were arrested on the sidewalk of the bridge still could face felony charges of conspiracy.
A determination on those charges is pending the conclusion of a CHP investigation of the incident, Chan said.
(© CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. The Associated Press and Bay City News contributed to this report.)
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