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IAM1
B.V. Info-a-holic
Joined: Sep 01, 2006
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 Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2008 4:07 pm Post subject: SUPPRESSION OF FED GOVERNMENT ATTACKS ON PROTESTERS! |
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Federal government involved in raids on protesters
More extraordinary than these extreme raids is the fact that they are generating so little attention and even less outcry. [I've heard that the DHS is behind these raids! It would be nice to hear what others have found out about these FBI/Police raids.]
Glenn Greenwald
Aug. 31, 2008 | (update below - Update II)
UPDATE II: Preliminary reports erroneously indicated that the bus that was stopped was carrying members of Earth Justice. That was inaccurate. The group was an environmental activist group but has no connection or affiliation with Earth Justice. [End of Update II]
As the police attacks on protesters in Minnesota continue -- see this video of the police swarming a bus transporting members of Earth Justice an environmental activist group, seizing the bus and leaving the group members stranded on the side of the highway -- it appears increasingly clear that it is the Federal Government that is directing this intimidation campaign. Minnesota Public Radio reported yesterday that "the searches were led by the Ramsey County Sheriff's office. Deputies coordinated searches with the Minneapolis and St. Paul police departments and the Federal Bureau of Investigation."
Today's Star Tribune added that the raids were specifically "aided by informants planted in protest groups." Back in May, Marcy Wheeler presciently noted that the Minneapolis Joint Terrorist Task Force -- an inter-agency group of federal, state and local law enforcement led by the FBI -- was actively recruiting Minneapolis residents to serve as plants, to infiltrate "vegan groups" and other left-wing activist groups and report back to the Task Force about what they were doing. There seems to be little doubt that it was this domestic spying by the Federal Government that led to the excessive and truly despicable home assaults by the police yesterday.
So here we have a massive assault led by Federal Government law enforcement agencies on left-wing dissidents and protesters who have committed no acts of violence or illegality whatsoever, preceded by months-long espionage efforts to track what they do. And as extraordinary as that conduct is, more extraordinary is the fact that they have received virtually no attention from the national media and little outcry from anyone. And it's not difficult to see why. As the recent "overhaul" of the 30-year-old FISA law illustrated -- preceded by the endless expansion of surveillance state powers, justified first by the War on Drugs and then the War on Terror -- we've essentially decided that we want our Government to spy on us without limits. There is literally no police power that the state can exercise that will cause much protest from the political and media class and, therefore, from the citizenry.
http://www.startribune.com/local/27703754.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aULPQL7PQLanchO7DiUX
Beyond that, there is a widespread sense that the targets of these raids deserve what they get, even if nothing they've done is remotely illegal. We love to proclaim how much we cherish our "freedoms" in the abstract, but we despise those who actually exercise them. The Constitution, right in the very First Amendment, protects free speech and free assembly precisely because those liberties are central to a healthy republic -- but we've decided that anyone who would actually express truly dissident views or do anything other than sit meekly and quietly in their homes are dirty trouble-makers up to no good, and it's therefore probably for the best if our Government keeps them in check, spies on them, even gets a little rough with them. Read article and watch video of police/FBI raid/attack here:
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/08/30/police_raids/index.html
After all, if you don't want the FBI spying on you, or the Police surrounding and then invading your home with rifles and seizing your computers, there's a very simple solution: don't protest the Government. Just sit quietly in your house and mind your own business. That way, the Government will have no reason to monitor what you say and feel the need to intimidate you by invading your home. Anyone who decides to protest -- especially with something as unruly and disrespectful as an unauthorized street march -- gets what they deserve.
Isn't it that mentality which very clearly is the cause of virtually everyone turning away as these police raids escalate against citizens -- including lawyers, journalists and activists -- who have broken no laws and whose only crime is that they intend vocally to protest what the Government is doing? Add to that the fact that many good establishment liberals are embarrassed by leftist protesters of this sort and wish that they would remain invisible, and there arises a widespread consensus that these Government attacks are perfectly tolerable if not desirable.
During the Olympics just weeks ago, there was endless hand-wringing over the efforts by the Chinese Government to squelch dissent and incarcerate protesters. On August 21, The Washington Post fretted:
Six Americans detained by police this week could be held for 10 days, according to Chinese authorities, who appear to be intensifying their efforts to shut down any public demonstrations during the final days of the Olympic Games. . . .
Chinese Olympic officials announced last month that Beijing would set up zones where people could protest during the Games, as long as they had received permission. None of the 77 applications submitted was approved, however, and several other would-be protesters were stopped from even applying.
On August 2, The Post gravely warned:
Behind the gray walls and barbed wire of the prison here, eight Chinese farmers with a grievance against the government have been consigned to Olympic limbo.
Their indefinite detainment, relatives and neighbors said, is the price they are paying for stirring up trouble as China prepares to host the Beijing Games. Trouble, the Communist Party has made clear, will not be permitted.
Would The Washington Post ever use such dark and accusatory tones to describe what the U.S. Government does? Of course it wouldn't. Yet how is our own Government's behavior in Minnesota any different than what the Chinese did to its protesters during the Olympics (other than the fact that we actually have a Constitution that prohibits such behavior)? And where are all the self-righteous Freedom Crusaders in our nation's establishment organs who were so flamboyantly criticizing the actions of a Government on the other side of the globe as our own Government engages in the same tyrannical, protest-squelching conduct with exactly the same motives?
Just review what happened yesterday and today. Homes of college-aid protesters were raided by rifle-wielding police forces. Journalists were forcibly detained at gun point. Lawyers on the scene to represent the detainees were handcuffed. Computers, laptops, journals, diaries, and political pamphlets were seized from people's homes. And all of this occurred against U.S. citizens, without a single act of violence having taken place, and nothing more serious than traffic blockage even alleged by authorities to have been planned.
A man whose sister was one of those arrested at one of the raided houses in Minneapolis yesterday emailed me a photograph of her and her friend who was also arrested -- Monica Bicking and Eryn Trimme -- and he wrote this:
They are still in custody. I've been told that the police have 36 hours to charge her, and that 36 hours starts after the labor day holiday, so they only have to charge her sometime Wednesday. It seems unlikely that they'd do anything to expedite her or Eryn's release.
They were then planning to actually board up her house for unspecified "code violations", but apparently her neighbors were very vocal, and the police ended up agreeing not to do anything so long as the front door was fixed by 6pm (the front door they'd busted in).
Heres is the extraordinary blog item I linked to yesterday from Eileen Clancy, one of the founders of I-Witness Video -- a NYC-based video collective which is in St. Paul to document the policing of the protests around this week's Republican National Convention, just as they did at the 2004 GOP Convention in New York. Clancy wrote this as a plea for help, as the Police surrounded her house and (before they had a search warrant) told everyone inside that they'd be arrested if they exited the home:
This is Eileen Clancy . . . The house where I-Witness Video is staying in St. Paul has been surrounded by police. We have locked all the doors. We have been told that if we leave we will be detained. One of our people who was caught outside is being detained in handcuffs in front of the house. The police say that they are waiting to get a search warrant. More than a dozen police are wielding firearms, including one St. Paul officer with a long gun, which someone told me is an M-16.
We are suffering a preemptive video arrest. For those that don't know, I-Witness Video was remarkably successful in exposing police misconduct and outright perjury by police during the 2004 RNC. Out of 1800 arrests, at least 400 were overturned based solely on video evidence which contradicted sworn statements which were fabricated by police officers. It seems that the house arrest we are now under and the possible threat of the seizure of our computers and video cameras is a result of the 2004 success.
We are asking the public to contact the office of St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman at 651-266-8510 to stop this house arrest, this gross intimidation by police officers, and the detention of media activists and reporters.
That sounds like what it was: a cry for help from a hostage. Hours later, the Police finally obtained a search warrant -- for the wrong house, one adjacent to the house where they were being detained -- and nonetheless broke in, pointing guns, forced them to lay on the floor and handcuffed everyone inside (and handcuffed a National Lawyers Guild attorney outside). They searched the house, arrested nobody, and then left.
Any rational person planning to protest the GOP Convention would, in light of this Government spying and these police raids, think twice -- at least -- about whether to do so. That is the point of the raids -- to announce to citizens that they best stay in their homes and be good, quiet, meek, compliant people unless they want their homes to be invaded, their property seized, and have rifles pointed at them, too. The fact that this behavior is producing so little outcry only ensures, for obvious reasons, that it will continue in the future. We love our Surveillance State for keeping us safe and maintaining nice, quiet order.
UPDATE: A Professor at the University of Minnesota who lives in the neighborhood where one of the homes was raided yesterday sent photographs he took which rather conclusively demonstrate federal involvement in these raids: [See photo above at title of article]
And Feministing has the video -- here below -- of the scene yesterday where journalists were detained, along with an interview with the homeowner whose house was raided. Watch video next:
http://www.feministing.com/archives/010742.html |
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IAM1
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| Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2008 4:54 pm Post subject: |
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Journalist arrested by Police State at Republican Convention
'Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman was unlawfully arrested in downtown St. Paul, Minnesota at approximately 5 p.m. local time. Police violently manhandled Goodman, yanking her arm, as they arrested her. Goodman was arrested while attempting to free two Democracy Now! producers who were being unlawfuly detained. Kouddous and Salazar were arrested while they carried out their journalistic duties in covering street demonstrations at the Republican National Convention. Goodman's crime appears to have been defending her colleagues and the freedom of the press.'
Click here to watch ...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYjyvkR0bGQ |
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IAM1
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| Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2008 5:01 pm Post subject: |
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Police State RNC: A Nun and Eight Others Swept into Unmarked Van by Cops in Minnesota
August 31, 2008.
Abuse of "probable cause holds" shows the importance of habeus corpus protections.
UPDATE (12:34 PDT):: One of the 9 protesters arrested was a nun, seen being loaded into an unmarked blue van. The 9 were apparently trying to climb a fence near a church.
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UPDATE: ColdSnap is reporting 9 arrests downtown near the Excel center and police massing all over the downtown core.
The National Lawyers Guild and Communities United Against Police Brutality have filed an emergency motion to stop the seizure of cell phones and cameras during the RNC.
The groups will hold a joint press conference at Hennepin County Government Plaza to discuss their application for an emergency injunction, according to a tweet issued by the ColdSnap Legal Collective.
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The 6 activists arrested during police raids in advance of the Republican National Convention are being held without charge by the Ramsey County Sheriff's Office, the Minnesota Independent reports.
The arrestees are being held on probable cause holds. These holds give the authorities 36 hours to charge them or let them go. Holds are typically used to give investigators more time to gather evidence before filing formal charges.
Holds allow police to charge first and ask questions later. Sometimes that's a good thing. Arrest opportunities are unpredictable. A suspect could slip away in the time it takes to turn a solid suspicion into sufficient evidence to file charges. A probable cause hold buys the police some time to dot the i's and cross the t's.
However, it doesn't take a genius to see how the power to detain people without charge can be abused. For example, unethical police officers have been known to use frivolous holds as quickie jail terms. Piss off the police, spend 3 days in jail--no trial required.
In Minnesota, a probable cause hold can be issued by an officer without review by a judge or a prosecutor. The 36-hour window doesn't include weekends and holidays. So the protesters arrested over the long weekend could be locked up until Wednesday.
The National Lawyers Guild is asking a judge to review these detentions in the hopes of getting the arrestees out sooner.
Imagine if the police could hold these protesters as long as they wanted.
The United States is holding suspects without charge at Guantanamo--many of whom were apprehended without anything approaching probable cause. Of course, Bush administration asserts the right to put off their trials forever.
Scenarios like these illustrate why habeas corpus is vital to the rule of law.
http://www.alternet.org/blogs/rights/97077 |
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Aquatank
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| Posted: Thu Sep 04, 2008 1:13 am Post subject: |
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Lets step back a bit. This years RNC problem might be less injustice than it first appears.
Firstly there are informants undercover police or concerned activists. Probably cause.
Second in the mass sweep of those being investigated items for sabotage, theire are found those types of items among the few. Evidence. (The problem starts here and is jusridictional as the Sheriff's Dept. stomps on City Police turf.)
Thirdly during the actual protest a few hundred break off from the peaceful demonstration to commit crimes. Criminal Activity.
So what you have is a plot by various sub groups of protestors to commit criminal activities including civil disobedience, vanadalism, property damage, and generally riot. Somewhere an inkling of appropriate police response must seep through, the only real problem is where police use unnnecessary violent force.
So hypothetcically if you are the cops and activist insiders or undercover police are informing you of real knowledge of crime about to be committed by a large body of people what would you do? |
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IAM1
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| Posted: Thu Sep 04, 2008 8:06 am Post subject: |
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| Aquatank wrote: |
Lets step back a bit. This years RNC problem might be less injustice than it first appears.
Firstly there are informants undercover police or concerned activists. Probably cause.
Second in the mass sweep of those being investigated items for sabotage, theire are found those types of items among the few. Evidence. (The problem starts here and is jusridictional as the Sheriff's Dept. stomps on City Police turf.)
Thirdly during the actual protest a few hundred break off from the peaceful demonstration to commit crimes. Criminal Activity.
So what you have is a plot by various sub groups of protestors to commit criminal activities including civil disobedience, vanadalism, property damage, and generally riot. Somewhere an inkling of appropriate police response must seep through, the only real problem is where police use unnnecessary violent force.
So hypothetcically if you are the cops and activist insiders or undercover police are informing you of real knowledge of crime about to be committed by a large body of people what would you do? |
Hi Aquatank! I actually spoke with a police and Ramsey country jail officer regarding some of the arrests. I won't use the name(s) of the officers I spoke with but, ten or twelve people out of the 10,000 protesters were arrested for various street crimes, e.g. vandalism, stealing, etc. Those are amazing results considering the thousands that were there protesting! Only a few straggled off, or were independent to begin with and then committed crimes but that doesn't explain why journalists, such as Amy Goodman, and others were arrested and detained. And why were homes staked out and raided with innocent journalists inside? If you watch "Free Speech TV", you'd see the film footage of FBI and police officers raiding homes and detaining in handcuffs journalists, etc. I provided photos and videos above in the articles which document these things! Thanks for your input/comments!  |
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Aquatank
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| Posted: Thu Sep 04, 2008 10:26 am Post subject: |
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I'm not sure about news people left or right (Sometimes the newpeople make the story they want happen.), the arrests may have to be weighed as court comes.
The issue regarding the early arrests may sparked by affadavits of a 'anarchist' plot to kidnap delegates as reported on Fox news today. Obviously to raid the places protestors were staying meant there was a lot of intelligence being gathered from somewhere that allowed them to locate their targets.
However, there is something obvious that Republicans just aren't getting into their heads and that the resentment towards their and politics as opposed to the other parties is far greater and that a large group of their opposition is polarized enough to take violent action. Think of it in terms of ratings 1 persons letter to a tv studio equals 500 opinions that were unsaid, there for a few hundred violent prone extremists say 200 actually equals about 10000 across the states willing to commit violence. It should be carrying a hefty message to the Republicans that some of their policies have gone too far, I fear that these kinds of extremism may become mainstream opinions if that party does not change its more disagreable policies. Hopefully rational thought will intervene, but in a world where terrorism is being seen as effective home grown extremism is a real danger. |
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IAM1
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| Posted: Sat Sep 06, 2008 8:53 pm Post subject: |
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| Aquatank wrote: |
I'm not sure about news people left or right (Sometimes the newpeople make the story they want happen.), the arrests may have to be weighed as court comes.
The issue regarding the early arrests may sparked by affadavits of a 'anarchist' plot to kidnap delegates as reported on Fox news today. Obviously to raid the places protestors were staying meant there was a lot of intelligence being gathered from somewhere that allowed them to locate their targets.
However, there is something obvious that Republicans just aren't getting into their heads and that the resentment towards their and politics as opposed to the other parties is far greater and that a large group of their opposition is polarized enough to take violent action. Think of it in terms of ratings 1 persons letter to a tv studio equals 500 opinions that were unsaid, there for a few hundred violent prone extremists say 200 actually equals about 10000 across the states willing to commit violence. It should be carrying a hefty message to the Republicans that some of their policies have gone too far, I fear that these kinds of extremism may become mainstream opinions if that party does not change its more disagreable policies. Hopefully rational thought will intervene, but in a world where terrorism is being seen as effective home grown extremism is a real danger. |
IMO, the democrats are just as bad as the republicans because they're both the establishments political partyliners. I wouldn't vote for or support any of the partyliners because they're playing major elitist games. I hope people will see through the games that the dems and reps act out on the political stage with each other. They are all such media whores that I skip right by their unlimited (it seems) media occupancies, while all the other candidates and politicians that aren't part of the global elitist group/fraternity get pushed aside and basically ignored. It's funny how we never had such a terrorism tactic scare since 9/11 and the patriot act, which were all part of the Bush and cohorts agenda to wield extreme manipulations over the innocent masses under the guise of protectionism. I don't trust this crazy government and I'll continue to watch them as closely as I'm able. |
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IAM1
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| Posted: Mon Sep 08, 2008 12:42 am Post subject: |
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RNC protestors Charged With Terrorist Offences
RNC 8 Charged with “Conspiracy to Riot in Furtherance of Terrorism”
[This is ridiculous!]
September 4th, 2008
Watch video here:
http://www.federaljack.com/modules.php?name=News&new_topic=7
In what appears to be the first use of criminal charges under the 2002 Minnesota version of the Federal Patriot Act, Ramsey County Prosecutors have formally charged 8 alleged leaders of the RNC Welcoming Committee with Conspiracy to Riot in Furtherance of Terrorism. Monica Bicking, Eryn Trimmer, Luce Guillen Givins, Erik Oseland, Nathanael Secor, Robert Czernik, Garrett Fitzgerald, and Max Spector, face up to 7 1/2 years in prison under the terrorism enhancement charge which allows for a 50% increase in the maximum penalty.
Affidavits released by law enforcement which were filed in support of the search warrants used in raids over the weekend, and used to support probable cause for the arrest warrants, are based on paid, confidential informants who infiltrated the RNCWC on behalf of law enforcement. They allege that members of the group sought to kidnap delegates to the RNC, assault police officers with firebombs and explosives, and sabotage airports in St. Paul. Evidence released to date does not corroborate these allegations with physical evidence or provide any other evidence for these allegations than the claims of the informants. Based on past abuses of such informants by law enforcement, the National Lawyers Guild is concerned that such police informants have incentives to lie and exaggerate threats of violence and to also act as provocateurs in raising and urging support for acts of violence.
“These charges are an effort to equate publicly stated plans to blockade traffic and disrupt the RNC as being the same as acts of terrorism. This both trivializes real violence and attempts to place the stated political views of the Defendants on trial,” said Bruce Nestor, President of the Minnesota Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild. “The charges represent an abuse of the criminal justice system and seek to intimidate any person organizing large scale public demonstrations potentially involving civil disobedience, he said.”
The criminal complaints filed by the Ramsey County Attorney do not allege that any of the defendants personally have engaged in any act of violence or damage to property. The complaints list all of alleged violations of law during the last few days of the RNC — other than violations of human rights carried out by law enforcement — and seeks to hold the 8 defendants responsible for acts committed by other individuals. None of the defendants have any prior criminal history involving acts of violence. Searches conducted in connection with the raids failed to turn up any physical evidence to support the allegations of organized attacks on law enforcement. Although claiming probable cause to believe that gunpowder, acids, and assembled incendiary devices would be found, no such items were seized by police. As a result, police sought to claim that the seizure of common household items such as glass bottles, charcoal lighter, nails, a rusty machete, and two hatchets, supported the allegations of the confidential informants. “Police found what they claim was a single plastic shield, a rusty machete, and two hatchets used in Minnesota to split wood. This doesn’t amount to evidence of an organized insurrection, particularly when over 3,500 police are present in the Twin Cities, armed with assault rifles, concussion grenades, chemical weapons and full riot gear,” said Nestor. In addition, the National Lawyers Guild has previously pointed out how law enforcement has fabricated evidence such as the claims that urine was seized which demonstrators intended to throw at police.
The last time such charges were brought under Minnesota law was in 1918, when Matt Moilen and others organizing labor unions for the Industrial Workers of the World [ed. correction-TCIMC] on the Iron Range were charged with “criminal syndicalism.” The convictions, based on allegations that workers had advocated or taught acts of violence, including acts only damaging to property, were upheld by the Minnesota Supreme Court. In the light of history, these convictions are widely seen as unjust and a product of political trials. The National Lawyers Guild condemns the charges filed in this case against the above 8 defendants and urges the Ramsey County Attorney to drop all charges of conspiracy in this matter.
Source:
Bruce Nestor, President
Minnesota Chapter of National Lawyers Guild
http://rinf.com/alt-news/activism/rnc-protesters-charged-with-terrorist-offences/4527/ |
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IAM1
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| Posted: Mon Sep 08, 2008 1:03 am Post subject: |
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Feds Directed Preemptive Raids On RNC Protesters
National Lawyers Guild seeks judicial review
Sept 1, 2008
Steve Watson
Raids carried out on what police described as "the headquarters of an anarchist/anti-authoritarian group" ahead of the Republican National Convention in Minnesota, were directed by the Federal Government it has been revealed.
Salon Columnist Greg Greenwald highlights the Federal involvement in a scathing article denouncing the raids as an all out attack on free speech and the right to protest. [See Greenwald article at beginning of this thread]
Minnesota Public Radio reported yesterday that "the searches were led by the Ramsey County Sheriff's office. Deputies coordinated searches with the Minneapolis and St. Paul police departments and the Federal Bureau of Investigation."
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/08/30/more_raids/?refid=0
Photographs (see above) taken by a Professor at the University of Minnesota who lives in the neighborhood where one of the homes was raided yesterday, have also confirmed the federal involvement in the raids.
Greenwald adds:
Today's Star Tribune added that the raids were specifically "aided by informants planted in protest groups." Back in May, Marcy Wheeler presciently noted that the Minneapolis Joint Terrorist Task Force -- an inter-agency group of federal, state and local law enforcement led by the FBI -- was actively recruiting Minneapolis residents to serve as plants, to infiltrate "vegan groups" and other left-wing activist groups and report back to the Task Force about what they were doing. There seems to be little doubt that it was this domestic spying by the Federal Government that led to the excessive and truly despicable home assaults by the police yesterday.
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/08/30/police_raids/index.html
http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2008/05/21/in-minneapolis-vegan-terrorist/
According to reports, six activists were arrested when the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Department stormed a rented meeting place of the self penned "RNC Welcoming Committee" in St. Paul on Friday night.
Up to 30 police officers entered the building with semi automatic weapons, leading to the detention and photographing of at least 50 people in total.
Video has also emerged from the scene over the weekend revealing that journalists were also detained.
http://www.feministing.com/archives/010742.html
The dissidents and protesters had committed no acts of violence or illegality whatsoever and have not been charged with any offences, prompting concerns over the police-state like tactics.
Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher later issued a press release which labeled the those detained “criminal anarchists” and suggested that "materials for bombs" and "hazardous materials" had been found in the building, including “assorted edged weapons”, “wrist rockets”, “large amounts of urine” and many others.
St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman defended the actions of the county sheriff’s department as necessary to keep other protesters of the RNC safe.
http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2008/08/31/politics/horserace/entry4401722.shtml
“We are making sure that people here to legitimately protest have the right to do that, but people engaging in criminal activity are not going to be able to do that,” Coleman said.
The Minnesota Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild is seeking a judicial review into the arrests of the activists during Friday night's raid, the Minnesota Independent reported.
http://www.minnesotaindependent.com/6368/national-lawyers-guild-seeks-to-have-judge-review-detentions-of-six-activists-by-sunday
A portion of a statement from the NLG reads:
Three of the arrestees are life-long residents of Minnesota. Two previously worked in early childhood education and passed background checks to obtain that employment. All have extensive ties to Minnesota, including employment and family members. One is a graduate of the University of Minnesota. None of the six arrestees have ever been convicted of a felony or crime of violence. One person arrested on Saturday morning, August 30th, was previously detained on Friday night at the St. Paul convergence center where he was photographed and identified. Despite being labeled a “key member” of a “criminal enterprise” and a planner of a “criminal conspiracy,” he was released on Friday night even though Sheriff Fletcher had conducted a months long investigation, using informants, and presumably identified the “key leaders” who he claims were organizing riots and civil disorder.
An NLG spokesperson told reporters that police are actively attempting to prevent the demonstrators from exercising their right to protest given that no charges or official complaints have been filed.
“If they have evidence of a criminal act, then they should charge them,” Bruce Nestor said. “And if they can charge [my client, Monica Bicking] with a complaint, then we will go defend that in court. But right now they are just holding them. You can’t just hold [Bicking] to prevent her from exercising her free speech.”
Meanwhile thousands of other demonstrators have gathered in St. Paul, Minn. to protest the RNC on its opening day despite events being severely limited due to Hurricane Gustav. |
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IAM1
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| Posted: Mon Sep 08, 2008 1:07 am Post subject: |
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Thousands gather for RNC protest
Associated Press
September 1, 2008
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) -- About 10,000 protesters waving peace sign flags rallied at the state Capitol on Monday before an anti-war march to the Republican National Convention site. Hundreds of police wearing bulletproof vests and carrying billy clubs stood by.
Preparing for disruptions from a self-described anarchist group, officers in riot gear were stationed along the march route.
The anarchist group, known as the RNC Welcoming Committee, was targeted in police searches over the weekend that resulted in six arrests. The group, which did not organize Monday's march, said in a written statement that it was "moving forward with a national call to crash the convention."
At the rally, a 25-foot-long ice sculpture rose 3 feet in the air and spelled "Democracy." Some protesters flew kites, waved American and peace-sign flags and carried homemade anti-war signs.
Police said they were prepared for anything during the march, which organizers hoped would attract 50,000 people.
"We will not tolerate lawlessness in the city of St. Paul," St. Paul Police Chief John Harrington said.
Peace activist Steve Clemens, 47, from Minneapolis said he was disturbed by the number of police.
"But we can't control that," said Clemens, who had already been arrested once - for crossing into a restricted area during a march Sunday.
For Monday's rally, he was planning to be part of the Minnesota Peace Team, a group that hoped to prevent confrontations between police and protesters.
Cheri Honkala, a national organizer for the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign, said she expected violent confrontations between anarchists and police.
"I just hope it doesn't get bloody," she said at a news conference shortly before the march was to begin. Her group was planning a nonviolent march on Tuesday with acts of civil disobedience.
One of the six arrested over the weekend on probable cause of conspiracy to commit a riot was released Sunday, according to attorney Bruce Nestor. No charges were filed against the woman, 23-year-old Monica Bicking. The other five remained jailed, possibly until Wednesday, Nestor said.
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Thousands_gather_for_RNC_protest__0901.html |
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IAM1
B.V. Info-a-holic
Joined: Sep 01, 2006
Posts: 5463
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| Posted: Mon Sep 08, 2008 1:18 am Post subject: |
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Republican National Congress Protester Offers Riot Police A Flower And Gets Pepper-Sprayed In The Face
American citizens and American protesters need to start wearing police helmets so they can protect themselves from being assaulted by one of the many weapons the "Police State Psychos" use on harmless citizens!
Click her to watch...
http://dotconnectoruk.blogspot.com/2008/09/protestor-at-rnc-offers-riot-police.html |
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