SubscribeProtesters here in Minneapolis have been targeted by a series of highly intimidating, sweeping police raids across the city, involving teams of 25-30 officers in riot gear, with semi-automatic weapons drawn, entering homes of those suspected of planning protests, handcuffing and forcing them to lay on the floor, while law enforcement officers searched the homes, seizing computers, journals, and political pamphlets. Last night, members of the St. Paul police department and the Ramsey County sheriff's department handcuffed, photographed and detained dozens of people meeting at a public venue to plan a demonstration, charging them with no crime other than "fire code violations," and early this morning, the Sheriff's department sent teams of officers into at least four Minneapolis area homes where suspected protesters were staying.
Jane Hamsher and I were at two of those homes this morning -- one which had just been raided and one which was in the process of being raided. Each of the raided houses is known by neighbors as a "hippie house," where 5-10 college-aged individuals live in a communal setting, and everyone we spoke with said that there had never been any problems of any kind in those houses, that they were filled with "peaceful kids" who are politically active but entirely unthreatening and friendly...
On the other hand, I'm tremendously upset at the conduct of some of the protesters. As Democrat that has despised the GOP's actions over the course of the Bush Administration, I had hoped for a huge, peaceful march not unlike one Martin Luther King would have advocated if he were still with us.First of all, these same types of people were doing the same thing at the Democratic convention in Denver, although it sounds like there were not as many and the local police were not as obnoxious.
There are designated areas where to protest and where to set up your cameras and do your journalistic duties.This woman was a credentialed journalist, who had just been inside the convention center. I realize that it makes sense for police to limit where protestors can protest, but why exactly would they need to limit where reporters can report? I mean, obviously anyone could "claim" to be a reporter, but this particular person had a press credential from the GOP, specifically to cover the convention (If I'm not mistaken, I could be. But she was talking about having a credential and mentioned that she'd just been inside the convention before getting arrested.)
If this were truly the totalitarian police-state that people are decrying it to be, you wouldn't have even known about the arrests.That is totally wrong. There is no reason why having a police state is incompatible with freedom of speech. It's like how NRA members run around saying that you can't have a police state and an armed populous, but look at Iraq under Saddam, anyone could buy any kind of gun, and no one would call it a free society.
Nazi Germany, for example, came into being through violent means, including street battles, the burning of the Reichstag, and Kristallnacht, followed by a Nazi revolutionYou don't seem to have any idea what you're talking about. I mean the Kristallnacht before a "nazi revolution"? First of all there was never really a "nazi revolution" they did win an election and gradually gained more and more power in government. Obviously violence was involved, it was a complicated era, but to say they were "dropped from orbit" is way over the top.
There is clearly an intent on the part of law enforcement authorities here to engage in extreme and highly intimidating raids against those who are planning to protest the Convention. The DNC in Denver was the site of several quite ugly incidents where law enforcement acted on behalf of Democratic Party officials and the corporate elite that funded the Convention to keep the media and protesters from doing anything remotely off-script. But the massive and plainly excessive preemptive police raids in Minnesota are of a different order altogether. Targeting people with automatic-weapons-carrying SWAT teams and mass raids in their homes, who are suspected of nothing more than planning dissident political protests at a political convention and who have engaged in no illegal activity whatsoever, is about as redolent of the worst tactics of a police state as can be imagined.So this is real pre-emptive violation of civil liberties, not something happening in China or something that might happen. According to people in the houses that were raided, warrants were not shown until the end of the raids, excessive force was used.
What in the name of holy FUCK is the point of that?
So, people are 'planning illegal acts' when it's protest you disagree with, and it's all barbershop quartet hilarity when you agree with them?You don't see the difference between that and blockading streets, smashing property, and attacking delegates?
2. Transportation Troubles – This includes blockades downtown (at key intersections), on bridges (10 bridges over the Mississippi River in the metro area), and other sporadic and strategic targets (busses, hotel and airport shuttles etc).That may not be violence, but it is criminal activity.
In fact, St. Paul actually negotiated a special insurance provision with the Republican Host Committee so that the first $10 million in liability for lawsuits arising from the convention will be covered by the Host Committee. The city is very proud of this negotiation. It’s the first time it’s been negotiated between a city and the Host Committee. But it basically means we can commit wrongdoing, and we won’t have to pay for it.Sickening, but if you like the thought of the Republicans paying that first 10 million in damages out of THEIR pocket, then rock on. I wonder if Denver negotiated anything similar?
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posted by Poolio at 6:29 PM on September 1, 2008 [2 favorites]