Today is a big day here in San Francisco, and that's because the Olympic Torch Relay makes its only stop in the US here this afternoon. As you can imagine, with this being San Francisco, there are 473 different protests planned for the day. There's the protest for Burma, for Darfur, for Tibet, for the killing of cats and dogs in China, and there's a naked protest run too, supposedly. I've also heard word that people are going to rickroll the torch too.

But the real thing people are worrying about here is will there be an violence? Well, if I were a betting man, I'd say yes. And one of the reasons for that is simple.

The Wall Street Journal says that it appears that members of the Beijing Olympic Games Sacred Flame Protection unit are in fact a detachment of personnel from China's People's Armed Police. This paramilitary force has wide-ranging duties, from protecting diplomatic missions to maintaining internal security to shooting anyone who questions Chinese authority. And wouldn't you know it, units of the People's Armed Police were deployed to forcibly quell violent unrest last month in Tibet.

If you think I'm being harsh on the armed police, then don't take my word on them. Take Lord Sebastian Coe's word on them. Coe is a two-time Olympic gold medalist and chairman of London's Olympic organizing committee. He called the Chinese torch protectors "thugs."

And it gets a little weirder too. The French police spokesperson said "I have no idea who they were."

The French also said that the unit didn't understand that people are actually allowed to protest peacefully in other countries, and sometimes dived into crowds of people that weren't doing anything except voicing their displeasure at China. Some of the torchbearers have even been pissed off by the guards, who they described as "robotic" and "aggressive" and would bark orders at them.

So in other words, it should be an interesting day here in San Francisco. If I go out and get beat up by a Chinese para-military torch protector, there's a good chance he was beating a Tibetan monk to death a month ago.

Way to keep impressing the world China.