Reading the Telegraph, it seems the French police's attempts to protect the Olympic torch went well beyond providing security to include the (now-usual) suppression of free speech:
Pro-Tibet activists trying to reach the foot of the Eiffel Tower had already been driven back by police using loudhailers to demand that protestors carrying Tibetan flags leave a security zonePerhaps we should be asking ourselves why the police forces of supposedly democratic western governments show so little concern for their citizens democratic rights, and are so eager to assist an anti-democratic regime in suppressing free speech for propaganda purposes.Similar demands were not made to those carrying French or Chinese flags.
