The list of offences against people and democracy and media in St. Paul during the week of the Republican National Convention is staggering.  These have been reported extensively by independent and grass-roots media, but here is a brief and hopefully representative sampling:

Amy Goodman and two Democracy Now! producers were arrested for covering the protests on Monday, September 1st.  The two producers were bloodied by police, and are now facing felony charges.  On Thursday, Sharif Abdel Kouddous of Democracy Now! was arrested a second time, along with Rick Rowley of Big Noise Films.

The rented home of five youths, who were hosting 23 of their friends, was raided by some 25 police in riot gear, who refused all requests to show a warrant until after the people had been made to lie face-down for 45 minutes.  Computers and other personal items were seized, and intimidating statements about “the Executioner” and “the Terminator” were made by police.

An estimated 800 people were arrested as of Thursday.  The police used tear gas, nightsticks, flash grenades, and other weapons against protesters.  Video footage is widely available on the internet.

But the big story this week has not been the repressive and brutal antics of police against dissidents and journalists in St. Paul.  No, rather it has been the ascent of Sarah Palin from relative isolation and obscurity in Alaska to her position as the Vice Presidential nominee of Senator John McCain.

A Personal Digression Necessary to the Development of This Essay

It’s been an odd week for me.  I work quietly, a bookseller bookworm on the fringes of a university town.  I like quiet, I like nature, and I like freedom.  Because of the first two things I like, I did not consider traveling to St. Paul to protest.  But reading the reports coming in through the internet, my electronic window to a speeded-up, unnatural, and sometimes overwhelming world, I’ve at times wished I was there—you know, because of my fondness for that third thing I listed: freedom.

The candidates and delegates at the Republican National Convention do not stand for freedom.  The police being willfully employed to threaten, intimidate, harass, beat, and arrest people who are not walking the Republican Party line in St. Paul are not the defenders of freedom.  To call them freedom’s executioners would be melodramatic, but perhaps more appropriate. 

Fear and the Need for Order

At the heart, if we may call it that, of the official gathering of candidates, delegates, party affiliates, and law enforcement in St. Paul is a severe illness, a bad malady that has been festering not so much in the individuals themselves, but in the spirit of a people separated from nature, from community, a people so frightened of the Other—even within their own country and even within the security and riches of their party’s convention!—that they take the kind of draconian measures we have seen this week in order to prevent any disruption of the play they are enacting, any obstacles set in front of the lumbering political machine that they are trying to commandeer and salvage.

One wonders what these people have to be so afraid of.  The obvious and official answer, as we all know, because it has been used to bludgeon our senses and sense of identity endlessly over the past seven years, is terrorism.  And indeed domestic terrorism in the fabricated threat that has been produced as the official reason for the squelching of people’s freedom—freedom to move, to be, to speak, to dissent—over the past week at the RNC in St. Paul.

The terrorism charges stem from police infiltration of the Republican National Convention Welcoming Committee.  Using the infiltrators as informants, police created a pretext of a suspicion of domestic terrorism, and also the charge “conspiracy to riot”, to raid homes, places of assembly, as well as to justify the very aggressive street actions of riot squads armed with submachine guns, tasers, and chemical weapons.  It should be noted that information provided by informants should be considered highly suspect, given the precedent of COINTELPRO and other covert actions where infiltrating agents have been known to actively promote violent ideas for action--or as the quote form wikipedia has it, "increase factionalism, cause disruption and win defections"--which are then used in charges against individuals involved with the organization.  For this reason, information about how the Welcoming Committee planned to kidnap delegates, or use Molotov cocktails, caltrops, bricks, etcetera, as reported to the public by the Pioneer Press, should be critically assessed and not taken for fact or at face value.

What is Really Happening in the Hearts of People and On the Streets

The RNC Welcoming Committee describes itself on its website as an anarchist/anti-authoritarian organizing body.  Unfortunately, for many people the label “anarchist” immediately brings to mind violence: homemade bombs, property destruction, people wearing black kerchiefs to conceal their faces, showing nothing but their anti-social, shifty eyes, and the like.  And certainly it cannot be denied that anarchists have a history in America that includes violence.  Two things should be noted, however.

First, anarchism is a broad, general term that can be used to describe any number of idiosyncratic ideologies.  As a general term, anarchy can be understood to mean, “absence of government,” and recognized as coming from the Greek anarchos, which is defined as “having no ruler.”  Simply put, the broadest generalization that can be made about anarchists is that they believe that a society can function without government.  Some anarchists may subscribe to violent tactics and want to overthrow existing power structures, or more likely wish to engage in physical destruction of those power structures or their symbols; many others may be dedicated pacifists.

The second point to make in terms of the perception of anarchists as violent is that anarchists by no means have a monopoly on violence.  Indeed, the entire American culture is violent: one simply needs to look at the current wars being fought by the American government, or look even at the excessive police action in St. Paul.  For those inclined to look deeper, a strong argument can be made for the roots of aggressive violence in this country stretching far back in time, back to English witch-hunts, Spanish conquistadors, to Puritans and frontier cowboys fighting Indians, and—why not?—to the Revolutionary War.  If anarchists are violent, they are pathetically so, often like an angry child lashing out at a parent: a bomb here, some property damage there, all embedded quite snugly in the greater imperial and yes, racist violence of the Euro-American legacy.

Sherri Honkala, a speaker at the Poor People’s March for Our Lives, which is an entirely different movement than the RNC Welcoming Committee, responded to criticisms and fears that were expressed to her that the “anarchists” would cause trouble for her movement:

“It wasn’t the anarchists four years ago or eight years ago,” she said, using a megaphone to address a large crowd, a crowd which was hemmed in by police in riot gear and with submachine guns and other instruments of violence.  “It was the police department.”  She continued, “I don’t give a damn if you’re an anarchist, democrat, or republican, or whatever your political ideas are.  All I know is that I’m going to march today with people who have a similar vision of a different kind of world for us to live in.”

Also standing and marching with the Poor People’s March was a prominent member of the Mississippi Band of the Anishinabe Nation, Nee-Gon-Nway-Wee-Dung (Thunder Before the Storm, also known as Clyde Bellecourt), who founded the American Indian Movement in 1968.  He spoke the following to the camera crews of Big Noise Films: “I’m here to stand up to this George Armstrong Custer Bush frontier mentality and John Wayne, John Wayne McCain frontier mentality that exists in America today.”

While indy journalists were filming from inside the protests—some of them being arrested for doing so—Fox News was embedded with the Minneapolis Police.

One protestor marched along in the crowd, shooing the police away with his hands and the following words: “Take your guns and go home!  Bye!  Take your armor and go home!  Bye!  Bye!”  The protesters, chanting “Peaceful protest!  Peaceful protest!” pushed the line of police back with only the movement of so many bodies.

The march ended with Sherri Honkala speaking through a megaphone and through a chain-link fence, through lines of police, delivering the following speech to the walls of the Xcel Center, where the RNC was assembled:

“People are dying here in Minnesota and across the country.  They don’t have access to health care.  They join wars.  They go overseas and poor people kill other poor people just so they can have a job!  I just want to practice my first amendment rights to speak out and I can’t do that behind a cage!  I’m not going to hurt anybody, I just want to talk to somebody.  I’m just going to deliver the citizen’s arrest through the fence.  Please don’t kill me for that!  It’s a piece of paper and an American flag.  The whole world is watching.”

After her speech, she shoved an American flag and a citizen’s arrest for the people inside the Xcel Center, a piece of paper charging them with crimes against humanity, under the fence.  The police then ordered the assembly to disperse.  After the order, they opened fire with tear gas and flash grenades.  They infiltrated the now chaotic crowd of protestors with tasers and shields and batons, and made arrests.

Inside the Xcel center, the convention went on.

Tomorrow, Friday September 5th, at 12 pm there will be a press conference at the southeast entrance of Ramsey County Jail on Lafayette Road in St. Paul. This is North Star Health Collective’s first official press conference.

LOCAL HEALTH CARE PROVIDERS DENOUNCE POLICE DETENTION AND ABUSE OF MEDICAL VOLUNTEERS

Saint Paul, MN – A group of local and national health care providers has been offering first aid to protesters and city residents during the RNC protests. This aid has been offered to people exercising their first amendment rights to protest. The care providers have witnessed law enforcement harassment of EMTs, RNs and other first aid providers while they were engaged in providing care, including approximately 25 arrests (10 of which were made during the writing of this press release Thursday night). Members of the North Star Health Collective (NSHC), a local group coordinating medical response during the protests, will hold a press conference Friday morning to bring attention to these incidents and testimonies of medical personnel present in the street.

NSHC will be highlighting examples like this:

*On Monday evening, two clearly marked providers, giving care to a paraplegic, were forcibly thrown to the ground by police and arrested. Explained Sean P. McCoy, a U.S. Navy Veteran and trained EMT:

“My medic partner and I were treating a handicapped male in a wheelchair for pepper spray to the face at the parking lot of Jackson Street. In the process of treating the patient, we were surrounded by several police officers in riot gear and forcibly thrown to the ground and told we were under arrest. We were then forcibly removed from our patient, handcuffed, and forced to lay face down on the ground while the officers proceeded to cut our bags off of us and remove all of our medical gear by dumping it on the ground.”

Mr. McCoy was held for over 55 hours in Ramsey County Jail, and, like many other protesters, locked in his cell for over 23 hours a day.

During the press conference, members of the group will display examples of the kind of projectiles they have seen police fire into crowds of people, often at point blank range.
Explained Garth Kahl, an NEMT-B from Oregon:

“There is a reason that these are called less-lethal weapons as opposed to non-lethal weapons. The indiscriminate firing of baton rounds, sponge grenades, and other blunt force projectiles in crowded areas is highly dangerous and irresponsible.”

Kim Christoffel, a graduate student in social work at the University of Minnesota and a local coordinator with NSHC, states:

“Our goal has been to keep people safe in areas that local EMS vehicles cannot quickly reach. Our observation of harassment of medical personnel contradicts police statements that claim that their actions have been directed at keeping everyone safe during the protests. It is shocking that providers have been arrested while attending injured and distraught people. NSHC never thought it would be necessary to say it, but apparently it is: ‘Providing medical care is not a crime.’ ”

ARRESTS

Gregory D Childress, 39
211 Mockingbird Ln, Nortonville, KY
1. No Operator's License
2. Possession of Drug Paraphernalia, 2nd+ offense

Zachary G Davis, 23
220 Crowley Ln, Madisonville, KY
1. Identity Theft
2. Parole Violation (warrant)

Ester N Duncan, 51
1215 Eastside Ln, Madisonville, KY
1. Theft by Unlawful Taking, felony

Frank Nicholas Maerz, 22
273 Reed Av, Madisonville, KY
1. Possession of Marijuana

Kenneth W Nesbitt, 37
218 Rochester Av, Marion, KY
1. DUI
2. Possession of Open Alcoholic Beverage in Motor Vehicle
3. Failure to Produce Insurance Card
4. Possession of a Controlled Substance, 1st offense

Paul M Taylor, 43
Red Cardinal Inn, 4765 Hanson Rd, Madisonville, KY
1. DUI, 2nd offense
2. Possession of OPen Alcoholic Beverage in Motor Vehicle
3. No Insurance, 1st offense
4. Expired Registration Plates

Rodney Chris Wester, 42
128 Morton St, Mortons Gap, KY
1. Criminal Trespass, 3rd degree

###

Agence France-Presse

The three top separatist leaders in Kashmir were put under house arrest on Friday ahead of planned protests against Indian-rule during weekly prayers, police said.

Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Syed Ali Geelani and Yasin Malik were locked in their homes with "strict instructions by police not to try to move out," a police official told AFP on condition he not be named.

Police and federal paramilitaries were also deployed in thousands in Kashmir's summer capital Srinagar ahead of the first Friday prayers of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

Separatists had told residents of Srinagar and the surrounding Kashmir valley, which have witnessed an upsurge in anti-India protests in recent months, to stage fresh demonstrations on Friday.

"We call upon the people of Kashmir valley to hold peaceful sit-in protests outside the mosques after Friday congregational prayers," said a statement by a separatist committee.

"The protests should remain peaceful. People have been asked to raise slogans seeking freedom and the right to self-determination," it said.

Indian Kashmir has been wracked by a Muslim insurgency since 1989.

The recent wave of protests was triggered by a state government plan made public in June to donate land to a Hindu shrine trust in the valley. The decision was later reversed after massive Muslim protests, angering Hindus.

On Sunday, the government agreed to temporarily provide land to the trust during the period of pilgrimage, a move rejected by separatists.

Since June, at least 39 Muslims and three Hindus have died in police shootings in the Kashmir valley and the mainly Hindu area of Jammu, further to the south.

India has detained protest leaders under tough laws and also held scores of separatist activists.

On Thursday, Geelani threatened to launch a "major agitation" against the government if the separatists were not released by the end of Ramadan.

Just making my way back to the RNC from the what has been a crazy night on the outside full of concussion grenades, tear gas and other oppressive tactics... Whew. I saw Sharif get hauled away, along with many other members of the press and legal observers. Some minors have been taken as well.

Getting word from Aura Bogado and also the Flashpoints team that there are mass arrests going on now in the streets and on the bridges while McCain speaks. Inside the arena, protests also happened, probably Code Pink. Got that from Davey D who is on the floor with the crowd. Inside protesters were dragged out and booed. Stay tuned -- we'll go to Aura as soon as possible. Checked in with our crew on the streets, so far they are all OK. Whew. I asked the Sheriff outside what he knew, but he was real sketchy. Nonetheless he told me they have multiple holding facilities. More as it goes. Give a cheer to our intrepid reporters.

Reports from Troops Out Now Activists say that police are engaging in mass arrests at the Marion St. Bridge.

Coldsnap is calling for legal observers on Marion St. Bridge now.

Sign the petition: Tell John McCain, the RNC, and the Minneapolis-St. Paul Police

• STOP the violence against protesters!
  
• Release All Arrestees and Drop the Charges!

http://www.troopsoutnow.org/rnc08protestrights.shtml

Crikey. Kudos to her for keeping right on filming. These Democracy Now people really got it, didn't they? Oof.

Ramsey County Jail- 425 Grove St., St Paul (24 hour vigil)
Hennepin County Jail- 350 S. 5th St., Minneapolis (vigil as needed- check twitter)
Coldsnap Legal Hotline- 651.356.8635

By AMY FORLITI , Associated Press

September 4, 2008

ST. PAUL, Minn. - As John McCain accepts his party's presidential nomination Thursday night, protesters calling for an end to the Iraq war plan to march outside the Xcel Energy Center.

The Anti-War Committee, which is organizing Thursday's march, urged others to join in and denounced the increased presence of police in riot gear and acts of "intimidation" in the streets of St. Paul.

Tracy Molm, a member of Students for a Democratic Society at the University of Minnesota, urged students to get involved.

"Students in this country are angry. We're angry because it's us that are asked to fight and die in this immoral and unjust war," Molm said Wednesday. "Bring that anger to the streets, because that is how social change in this country happens."

Police arrested 102 protesters in downtown Minneapolis early Thursday following a concert by the political rock group Rage Against the Machine, according to the Joint Information Center. Of those arrests, 100 were for misdemeanors and two were for gross misdemeanors. Eighty-seven of those arrested were tagged and released; 15 were booked.

full story

ARRESTS

Bobby Ray Barber, 19
138 Carbondale Rd, Madisonville, KY
1. Assault, 4th degree, domestic violence
2. Violation of a Kentucky EPO/DVO

Judy A Browning, 46
2033 S Main St, Madisonville, KY
1. Driving on a Suspended Operator's License
2. Possession an Operator's License when Privileges are Suspended

Clinton T Campbell, 18
601 A C Slaton Rd, Madisonville, KY
1. Criminal Trespass, 1st degree

Blake Derell Caraway, 21
30 Arnold St, Madisonville, KY
1. Fugitive from Another State

Henry E Cunningham, 47
2124 Ravenswood Dr, Evansville, IN
1. Theft by Deception, felony (warrant)
2. Theft by Deception, misdemeanor (warrant)
3. Driving on a Suspended Operator's License
4. No Registration Plates
5. Failure to Produce Insurance Card

Justin Michael Davis, 19
503 N Seminary St, Madisonville, KY
1. Disorderly Conduct, 2nd degree
2. Resisting Arrest

Greg Allen Ezell, 22
2033 S Main St, Madisonville, KY
1. Non Payment of Fines (warrant)

Richard Heath Francis, 19
3180 Eastlawn Rd, Hanson, KY
1. Criminal Mischief, 3rd degree

Robert Edward Gatlin, 46
744 Maple St, Madisonville, KY
1. Criminal Trespass, 1st degree

Jonah M Mills, 24
896 Wexford Way, Madisonville, KY
1. Criminal Trespass, 1st degree

Rachel Lynn Moore, 45
134 Walnut St, Mortons Gap, KY
1. Disorderly Conduct, 2nd degree

###

That's what the outside of the Ramsey County Jail looks like here in Saint Paul - Sheriff Fletcher is in the blue along with a blonde-haired aide (not to mention the intense amount of fencing and hundreds of riot-clad officers on patrol). What isn't in the picture of hunderds of supporters just a few yards away; I did not photograph them as many are just being released from jail themselves and may not feel comfortable being included in cyber-space. I spent a few hours outside the jail earlier today, talking to different people, including the Sheriff who agreed to speak with me briefly. Bail has been reduced from anywhere between $2,000 to $10,000, but the very serious charges still stand - terrorism charges for planning protests (can anyone say Chicago 8?). Tune in tonight to Pacifica's coverage for more updates, and make sure to listen to FSRN tomorrow for the full story.

In a progressively excessive chain of events, it has come to light that the FBI has planted several informers and pre-emptively arrested protesters on the suspicion of being liberal. These protesters were, indeed, planning on protesting the RNC. They had not committed any crime. Yet there is an attitude of "they deserve it!" among the general populace...that protesting, once considered a right more sacrosanct than our right to semi-automatic weapons, SHOULD be rewarded with detention and imprisonment.

If these people had committed a crime...that would be different. They would be charged, and I would agree that charging them was within reasonable action. But they didn't. They disagreed with actions taken by our government and planned to protest to that government to redress grievances. That, my fellow citizens, is not just our right. It is our responsibility as Americans. And that we are now so programmed to see any vocal civil action against our government is not just sad....it's scary as hell.

Are we really turning into such sheeple that the most we'll do when unhappy is sit and whine behind the privacy of our computers? And how long til even that isn't safe? Til the government petitions groups like Google and Yahoo and Time Warner to release private information about subscrib.....oh. That's right. That's already happened. And yet we do nothing.

]]> http://tothecurb.wordpress.com/?p=276 Wed, 03 Sep 2008 21:49:46 +0000 Aura Blogando http://tothecurb.wordpress.com/?p=276

Just got off the phone with Bruce Nestor from the Minnesota Chapter of the National Lawyer's Guild: eight alleged leaders of the RNC Welcoming Committee have been charged with very serious terrorism charges, and face about 10 years each behind bars. They are Monica Bicking, Eryn Trimmer, Luce Guillen Givins, Erik Oseland, Nathanael Secor, Robert Czernik, Garrett Fitzgerald and Max Spector - their group was infiltrated by paid informants.  I am heading down to the jail, and will try to return by evening to blog some more.

ARRESTS

Mathew DeWayne Foe, 22
815 Fergursontown Rd, Dawson Springs, KY
1. Contempt of Court (warrant)

Christopher L Hallum, 31
700 Illey Sisk Rd, Nortonville, KY
1. Parole Violation (warrant)

Kenneth D Mitchell, 33
201 Lunsford St, Madisonville, KY
1. Contempt of Court (warrant)

Cody A Tirey, 19
310 Saddlebrook Ln, Hanson, KY
1. Contempt of Court (warrant)

###

Our legal support number is 07597 541638 we would recommend that you tell police that you wish that number to be informed of your detention and Bindmans & Partners Solicitors have agreed to give legal advice to activists arrested their number is 07659 136205 - We strongly recommend not using the duty solicitor.

WRITE BOTH OF THESE NUMBERS ON YOUR ARM BEFORE GOING ON AN ACTION!

IMPORTANT INFO!

- We recommend a no comment interview when taken to interview if arrested.

- Do not accept any pieces of paper from the police at ANY time during the protest, footage of you accepting section 12 & 14 public order notices can be used against you in court.

- And if the cops start talking over a megaphone to issue a s12 or 14 just clap your ears shouting la la la... hehe.

- Do not publish video footage or photos you have taken which might incriminate others after the demonstration and please send us any good photos and video you have taken of the demo and cops to warn at riseup dot net.

Check out the bust card printables.

While the remains of a peaceful protest parade swirled around one closed road after another, growing increasingly frustrated that they weren't able to get back to their houses and cars, one officer told me that "anarchists" a few blocks away had been causing trouble -- throwing bricks and breaking people's property.

Anarchists? Please stop it! Because a person wears a black shirt with a large red "A" on it, does not an anarchist make. The truth is that a vast majority of anarchist, at all times and places, have opposed violence as morally repugnant and counter-productive. It is a folk myth for ill informed morons that anarchists are wild eyed bombers with no opinions, just an insane urge to destroy.

This shows the ignorance of those who cannot understand a concept so they must turn it into something evil and violent. They are wrong! They are lying! And they are ignorant!

Besides the fact that the attendees are mostly white (in contrast to the Democratic National Convention, which was about 40% people of color), it seems that another common thing these delegates have in common is their love for hats. There are countless cowboy hats (even Minnesota Viking defensive end Jared Allen is here wearing one); hats with red, white and blue bells; hats with red, white and blue ribbons; and red, white and blue Fox News hats:

Oh snap I almost forgot the um... Elephant hat:

Women around here also like pins, like these two women from Washington whose pins light up in red, white and blue lights:

Miss Minnesota and Miss Minnesota Teen and also here, thanks:

Actually, I should remember that there are some people of color, especially behind the nearly empty concessions stands:

Like I said, it's very different here than at the DNC. Sorry I don't have more to write - I am still recovering from the other planet that is the floor at the RNC.

_______________

Fox host: RNC protesters should just be left in jail

David Edwards and Muriel Kane
Raw Story
September 2, 2008

The hosts of Fox & Friends were predictably irate on Tuesday about the alleged anarchists who have been witnessed causing disruptions during the Republican National Convention, while ignoring questionable police tactics and seemingly indiscriminate arrests directed against peaceful protesters and journalists.

Gretchen Carlson even appeared to believe that there was no difference between the thousands of orderly protesters and the few dozen individuals who appear in Fox video breaking windows and overturning park benches and litter baskets. "’Peaceful, family-friendly march’ — is that why I was running for cover into Walmart?" she asked.

Steve Doocy explained to her that there was a distinction. "These are some of the protesters, and in a moment you’ll see them start to run," he said, narrating the video he had shot earlier. "Apparently some of the nitwits, these anarchists behind there, are throwing stuff at some of the police."

The Fox hosts continued watching the video and making negative remarks. "Do you know anybody that would grab a cop’s bicycle with them on it and try to take it away?" Brian Kilmeade asked.

"They do it on Labor Day because a lot of people have the day off — even though they do not have jobs," speculated Doocy.

"They’ve got to put them in jail and leave them in jail," Kilmeade suggested angrily. "Just leave them there for a week. … Just say the paperwork got messed up."

"You can’t do that, Brian!" objected Steve Doocy.

"Yes you can," Kilmeade claimed.

"They’ve got rights," insisted Doocy. "They’ve got a right to free speech."

"They don’t have a right to jump on top of police cars and destroy them and scare the jeepers out of all the other people," Gretchen Carlson concluded.

Police in St. Paul arrested 163 people at the protest march, including alleged vandals, peaceful protesters, and several journalists, among them Amy Goodman of Democracy Now!, who was seized when she questioned the detention of two of her producers.

According to a press release, "Kouddous and Salazar face pending charges of suspicion of felony riot, while Goodman has been officially charged with obstruction of a legal process and interference with a ‘peace officer.’ Democracy Now! forcefully rejects all of these charges as false and an attempt at intimidation of these journalists. We demand that the charges be immediately and completely dropped."

This video is from Fox’s Fox & Friends, broadcast September 2, 2008.

Source: http://www.infowars.com/?p=4293