Truth on raids and arrests in MInneapolis and St Paul

Please kick and send info to others and blog sites.. espeically your republican friends and family


Andy
>--
>I've just returned from taping an RNC Welcoming Committee news conference
>outside the same old West Side St. Paul building Fletcher's boys raided last
>night, kicking in doors, weapons drawn, forcing everyone - including
>children - facedown to the floor where they were handcuffed with large,
>sharp-edged, plastic straps, searched, then released, one-by-one. Officers
>confiscated several computers, maps, programs and some money according to
>Lisa Fithian, who conducted the news conference. More on the news conference
>itself later, but...
>
>Several teams of sheriff's deputies and other police have raided three or
>four private residences in Minneapolis and stopped several bicycle riders at
>gunpoint around both towns, arresting and jailing several of them on
>"conspiracy" charges, mostly young men and women connected to the protest
>community.
>
>Defense attorneys say these cross-jurisdictional raids are authorized and
>coordinated by Homeland Security and encompass all police and sheriffs'
>departments, the FBI and the Secret Service. The St. Paul Police were
>supposed to be "in charge" of any security outside the Secret Service "red
>zone" around the Xcel Center, but it's quite clear every police department
>in the Metro is under the coordination and direction of a larger entity.
>
>Gena Berglund, a National Lawyers Guild (NLG) attorney coordinating legal
>observers and recorders calls this Homeland Security operation the Fusion
>Center, a likely name for granting law enforcement powers across all
>jurisdictions.
>
>Fithian insisted that, in her 35 years of working in dozens of local and
>regional venues "for radical change in this country," she had never seen
>anything the likes of which is occurring this weekend across the Cities.
>
>Apparently, twelve to fifteen people have been detained without charges
>filed and they can be held for up to 36 hours - not counting weekends and
>holidays - meaning that they could be held through Tuesday unless their
>release is forced by a court, according to NLG lawyer Jordan Kushner, who
>spoke at the news conference.
>
>Among the other speakers were:
>
>Michael McPhearson of US Veterans for Peace, which is holding its annual
>convention in a Bloomington hotel/motel. Police officers from several
>jurisdictions appeared at that gathering as well, claiming to be scouting
>the facility for a their own use when, in fact, the VFP group had reserved
>the entire space for the same period of time. McPhearson was certain this
>was little more than police intimidation in much the same manner as he and
>his fellow soldiers used their uniforms and weaponry as intimidation of Iraq
>and Kuwaiti civilians during the Gulf War I and the current Iraq War.
>
>Dave Bicking, Green Party activist and father of one of the arrested people
>in this morning's Minneapolis raids, Monica Bicking.
>
>Coleen Rowley, former FBI agent and whistleblower and organizer of next
>Thursday's Peace Island Picnic.
>
>Ann Wright, former US Army colonel who said she has served in nearly every
>US-led military theater from Grenada to Iraq and has never seen such an
>operation as this weekend's preemptory police actions.
>
>All the speakers spoke of the profound curtailment of civil, human and
>Constitutional rights the police raids represent, and that every citizen's
>right to dissent and petition their government is being illegally quashed.
>
>What came quite clear to me is that law enforcement must knowingly be
>provoking the violence they warned city officials about in advance of the
>protest marches to come Monday and Tuesday mornings by the anti-war and
>anti-poverty group sponsors. What may be aimed at pre-convention
>intimidation and preemptory arrests of protest leaders to quell protesters'
>announced intentions to disrupt the convention has only fired up the very
>people police expected to put down.
>
>A cynic might wonder if this is all leading up to justification for a brutal
>confrontation between well-armed and armored police officers and unarmed and
>generally harmless marchers and dissenters.
>
>Where the two major city mayors, the city councils and county boards are
>throughout this extraordinary breach of Constitutional rights is a matter
>for citizens to challenge - and the disgrace this is bringing to the
>otherwise reasonable Twin Cities and Minnesota cultural heritage is beyond
>understanding.
>
>It would seem that, with little resistance, the elected officials of our
>cities have given governance over to a police state, however temporary, and
>to the paranoia that accompanies such an inbred culture as law enforcement,
>itself undeterred by the rule of law in keeping the peace and protecting the
>Constitution.
>
>The ripple effect in this community will last for years beyond the coming
>week - and the political and personal lives of citizens and our
>representatives will have taken a severe turn for the worse. Was it worth
>all of this grief for the money you all insisted was coming to our fair
>city's and business coffers to sully the very climate that made us so
>attractive in the first place?
>
>I think not.
>
>Andy Driscoll, Producer/Host
>Lynnell Mickelsen, Co-host
>Truth to Tell & CivicMedia/Minnesota
>KFAI Radio, 90.3 Minneapolis/106.7 St. Paul/Streamed@ KFAI.org
>651-293-9039 / Fax: (same, call ahead) / Cell: 651-492-2221
>email: andy@driscollgroup.com
>
>TRUTH TO TELL
>
>SEPT 1-4: REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION WEEK
>
>TRUTH TO TELL meets the Republicans coming to St. Paul's Xcel, talks with
>the groups protesting them, and watching the cops confronting everyone.
>Listen as TTT and KFAI present special coverage of the events inside and
>outside the convention arena. Our "reporters" from all walks will provide
>stories and interviews from marches, counter-conferences, rallies and
>insiders throughout the week.
>
>OUR SCHEDULE:
>
>* MONDAY, Sept 1- PM Hourly: News and field reports on the anti-war March
>Against the RNC and others
>
>* TUESDAY, Sept 2 - PM Hourly: News and field reports on the Poor People's
>march, Peace Island conference
>
>* WEDNESDAY, Sept 3 - 11AM: TRUTH TO TELL - Live from the Convention Center.
> GUESTS: TBD; News
>
>* THURSDAY: Sept 4 - 6-10PM: LIVE COVERAGE - Discussion and Analysis from
>KFAI and Xcel
>
>KFAI Radio, 90.3 Minneapolis /106.7 St. Paul / Streamed@KFAI.org
>A CivicMedia/Minnesota production
>Podcasts are available for all Truth to Tell shows:
><http://truthtotell.mypodcast.com/rss.xml>

why the over reaction. The RNC is holding its crowning in the eye of the hurricane.

It seems that many of them have no problem locking up people who are seeking peace. In a few days Blackwater mercs may well be stalking NOLA looking for looters to beat half to death. They will call it keeping the peace. Meanwhile people who really try to bring peace to our world may still be sitting in cells waiting for release.

They are arming for a war.

But on who?

The People, methinks.

Denver and St. Paul are test markets for the new amerikkkan fascism.

I met Colleen Rowley at the Media Reform Conference.

If they say this is bad, it's bad.

The Patriot Act has turned cops into fascist thugs.

You arm young Police officers with fancy military equipment and spend hours training them in "Riot" control.. what you get is the use and proliferation of this behavior. Also, Homeland Security pumps the "Us Vs Them" brainwashing into the police recruits.. and thus, they view all taxpayers as "them". There is no doubt that this is all being funded and promulgated from the Bush White House. Look at your local airport and notice how the TSA Goon Squads have changed air travel in the last 8 years? Sadly, it is 1984 becoming reality This election is THE most important one in our nations history. We may not be able to stop the spread of Fascism..the best we can hope for is to slow it down.

that protesters were caching weapons downtown. This caused some itchy trigger fingers on the pepper spray guns.

The police also used provacateurs, like the radical anti-gay phelpsian "preachers" that invaded Civic Center Park in Denver and incited the groups there that actually had permits, until a confrontation erupted and a citizen who was demanding a halt to the amplified hate speech was arrested.

It was a week long intimidation session from the Denver Police, signaling the end of civil liberties unless we force President Obama to de-militarize the police.

arrived. I wish I had money. Why is it that the only thing one can do involves money? Is this the point of no return, or did we pass that years ago?

but it ain't looking so good.

If we had a robust and independent Democratic party I would have more hope, but with Pelosi, Reid, Emmanuel, Hoyer and Wasserman-Schultz at the wheel it's gonna be a rough ride for the constitution.

P.S. I wish I had money too. LOL

cell phone?

e-mail?

Maybe a letter is best.

If each one of us got 2-3-5 more people to write letter to St.Paul Chamber of Commerce
( mine is going out tomorrow)
telling them
( in a very serious tone)
why we will not go to St. Paul
( think up a family reunion, business trip, vacation,something like that )
as we had planned, because we are afraid of abusive police tactics for jaywalking
or parking meter violations,

the Chamber of Commerce WILL be talking to the Mayor.

This will work even better if you happen to be the head of a large organization.
I would love to see a massive boycott.

Yeh, I know the raids were result of Homeland Security intimidation and illegal Posse Comitus behavior. We will get nowhere going head to head with the police or Feds on that...leave that to Lawyer Guild and all the lawsuits which will be filed.

Hit 'em in the pocketbook, which is very sensitive in the current economy.