'Pinstripe brigade' is hard at work planning to defend protesters in 2008

[question everything]

StarTribune.com
'Pinstripe brigade' is hard at work planning to defend protesters in 2008

By Randy Furst, Star Tribune

8/6/07

(snip)

A small armada of corporate attorneys, many of them partners in the area's most prestigious law firms, have begun meeting and strategizing ways to defend thousands of protesters expected to flock to the Twin Cities next September. And not for $500 an hour, but for free. Pro bono, or volunteer, work is common for attorneys, but observers are impressed by this effort, which was mobilized by the Minnesota affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union.

(snip)

The lawyers can be expected to collaborate with members of the local chapter of the National Lawyers Guild such as Bruce Nestor and Jordan Kushner. The guild is an activist-minded group of local attorneys who traditionally advocate for demonstrators. As many as 50 of them may get involved next year.

(snip)

At Hamline University Law School this month, some 50 lawyers and law students got a crash course on convention protest issues, where speakers included Art Eisenberg, legal director of the New York Civil Liberties Union. The Minnesota ACLU's decision to jump into the fray so early was partly driven by the problems faced by protesters in 2004 at the Republican Convention in New York and the Democratic Convention in Boston.

Some 1,800 protesters were arrested in New York, including onlookers. In Boston, say local attorneys, authorities set up a penned area for protesters, discouraging demonstrations. They say that by the time Boston attorneys got details of the demonstration site and took the case to federal court, a judge ruled there was too little time to litigate.

(snip)

He said protesters will need to be near the Xcel Energy Center, the convention site, so delegates can see and hear them, and go talk to them if they wish. Based on the experiences in New York and Boston, demonstrators might not learn their march route until shortly before the convention. "That's why you have judges, and that's why you have some of the best trial lawyers sitting in this room," said Pentelovitch. "We're not experts on protest demonstrations. We're experts on civil litigation in the Twin Cities. We know this town, and we know the judges."

(snip)

http://www.startribune.com/587/story/1345568.html

[NoodleBoy]

1. awesome.

[eyesroll]

2. That's cool -- I'm a National Lawyers Guild member (law student) and a trained legal observer.

Elections, protests, mass gatherings. I've not monitored anything too big (a couple of small protests, and a big, minority voting location in November 2004 to make sure nobody tried to intimidate the voters) but I'd like to when I can.

Hm...maybe this is a project my NLG student chapter can do -- we're not all that far from Minneapolis.

[question everything]

3. Oh good. Hope you'll get a chance

to practice this.