US election: Anti-war demonstrators face off with police at the Republican convention

[struggle4progress]

Source: The Guardian

Daniel Nasaw in St Paul
guardian.co.uk
Friday September 05 2008 02:57 BST

... On the fourth day of anti-war demonstrations, protesters assembled in the afternoon on the grounds of the state capital building. After an hour-long rally, the march permit expired and police ordered the crowd to disperse. Groups then marched toward a cathedral near the convention site, but were stopped by police lines at several bridges leading over an interstate highway ...

"When my city becomes a police state I have to say something," said Jim Sazevich, a St Paul historian. "We're being treated like criminals while the criminals are corralled in the Xcel centre," he said, referring to the hall where the Republican convention is taking place ...

More than 150 police departments from several states are providing security for the Republican convention. The St Paul and Minneapolis departments, which led law enforcement efforts at the protests, have arrested 430 people in the last several days.

Last night, a number of people pouring out of a Rage Against the Machine concert clashed with police, who arrested more than 100 ...

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/sep/05/uselections2008.republicans2008?gusrc=rss&feed=worldnews

[Frisbee]

1. How many people...

were arrested at the Dem convention? We cetainly saw and heard plenty of protesters there.

[snappyturtle]

12. I talked to my daughter in Minneapolis this morning. She says the

news up there is reporting over 800 arrested!

[The Sushi Bandit]

2. RNC march turns ugly as police use teargas, detain journalists

Source: Minnesota Independent

Jeff Severns Guntzel, in St. Paul, calls in with this report of a clash between police and protesters. We’ll update as events change. Scroll to the end for latest posts.

At 4:00 with music playing at the rally at the Capitol a team of one to two dozen bike-mounted police officers swept in from clear across the capitol lawn directly up to two young people, a man and a woman, who were lounging in the grass, formed a circle around them and arrested them. According to Sgt. John Lazoya of the St. Paul Police Department, the young man was a suspect in the shattering of the Macy’s store window. Lazoya said police officers had been given information with details about the young man on fliers before the concert. When they circled the suspects, the growd gathered to hear the music surrounded the officers chanting “Let them go” and, as the pair were taken away in plastic handcuffs, “This is what a police state looks like.”

<SNIP>
8:05: Six riot police are firing rifles, likely at protesters who are down an alley. Guntzel just passed an officer with an M-16.

8:07: Police are throwing another batch of bombs. “It’s completely confused here,” Guntzel says. “I don’t know if the police or the protesters know what to do here.”

8:10: Corner of University and Marion: Police in Sears parking lot, in University Bank lot and down University. Protesters are congregated in the McDonald’s parking lot.

8:16: In Sears parking lot, police are macing people one person after another. People who’ve come to Sears for non-protest reasons are told to have their hands in the air.



Read more: http://www.minnesotaindependent.com/7564/riot-police-poised-at-capitol-following-arrests-march-begins

[Baby Snooks]

3. Deja vu

You get a sense of deja vu. About Nixon. About Reagan. About the Nazis.

[struggle4progress]

4. Final day of protests goes out with a flash bang

Pioneer Press
Article Last Updated: 09/04/2008 11:20:10 PM CDT

... At about 8 p.m., some 200 protestors walked across the Capitol grounds and onto Marion Street, where police used smoke and flash bangs to deter them from turning onto University Avenue.

Panicked protestors fled between cars in the parking lot of the Sears building, and some were met by police with nightsticks and pepper spray ...

Jonathan Jacobsen, 20, of Minneapolis, said he was part of a big group that was running across the Marion Street bridge when they were blocked by police ...

Michael Campion, state public safety commissioner, said that "as many as a couple hundred" people were detained on the Marion Street Bridge ...

http://www.twincities.com/ci_10382016?source=most_emailed

[azurnoir]

7. WTF?

why would the police try to stop them? they were going AWAY in the opposite direction of xcel center, but the area is much more public and very hard to hide what is going on, lots of businesses and restaurants, not to mention street traffic that had been pretty much unencumbered by the goings on.

[PatrynXX]

9. Comments there suck

But then again this whole situation opened my eyes a bit. The mean hateful comments being left on that site are from the closed eyes.
They so want to stay in their own personal Matrix. They are probably relying on the MSM for their info so of course the Police are the good guys.


How police who arrest the press can be called good Ill never know. :( Just a said day for Minnesota. Hopefully they'll wisen up and vote those suckers out of office.

[struggle4progress]

5. Police arrest 200 in march on GOP convention

Sep 4 2008 11:06PM
Associated Press

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) Police surrounded and arrested over 200 protesters tonight after a series of marches and sit-ins in St. Paul timed to coincide with John McCain's acceptance of the GOP nomination for president.

Caught up were several reporters assigned to cover the event, including Amy Forliti (for-LIT'-ee) and Jon Krawczynski (kra-ZIN'-skee) of The Associated Press.

Officers ordered them to sit on the pavement on a bridge over Interstate 94 and to keep their hands over their heads as they were led away two at a time.

Forliti and Krawczynski were among at least 19 members of the media detained. They were issued citations for unlawful assembly and released ...

http://www.kxmc.com/News/272086.asp

[Indi Guy]

6. Some youtube video...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjnIJO2-fIE

[Indenturedebtor]

8. Dissent will not be tolerated n/t

[PatrynXX]

10. need that bumper sticker

Dissent is Patriotic

[Nobody]

11. KARE 11's reporter was arrested on the Marion St Bridge

This is the account of it. Please be sure to check out the video.

http://www.kare11.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=523937&catid=2

What pisses me off is that even after he and several others were herded onto the bridge, trapped there with nowhere to go, after the POLICE told him (and others) that that was the only way out of the area, they all got arrested. And what's worse, read the comments at the end of the story. More people were of the round 'em up and sort 'em out later variety than of the free speech is precious variety.

The reporter had a camera operator and press badges in obvious locations.

A friend who was arrested in a mass sweep three days ago just for biking NOWHERE NEAR THE XCEL CENTER, in fact, for biking in an area that was the designated detour, says that only RNC delegates and police have the right to wander freely in downtown St. Paul.

The story is seeping out little by little just how much right to free assembly we really have. Did you know that the RNC paid for lawsuit insurance so that the City of St. Paul doesn't have to? That means the cops don't have to worry about probably cause. Anyone in the area will do, civil liberties be damned.

[snappyturtle]

13. This part of your link bothers me:

"If you trace back, the problem began when those who wanted to protest, decided to extended their time to protest. The police said you can't, so the people marched. It's unlawful assembly and that's what has led to all the arrests."

I think this reporter may have his story wrong. I read, and God knows I can't remember where among the dozens of sources I've looked at, that is was the police, mayor, or some judge that shortened their protest time AFTER the permit was issued. Whatever, it's a sad day for the country to see those trying to be heard rounded up and treated like animals.

[Odin2005]

14. One shouldn't even have to get permits to demonstrate, it's a constitutional right.

Requiring people to get permits in order to demonstrate is blatantly unconstitutional censorship. Governments deciding who can and who can't have a demonstration is a violation of the 1st Amendment.

[snappyturtle]

15. Oh I agree with you. I was just pointing this out because I think

that was the excuse the authorities gave for their action....that is all.

Personally, I believe we should be able to speak out at anything, anywhere as long as we are not infringing on anyone else's rights. This episode in my beloved state of MN makes me sick to my stomach.