RNC: Exporting the "Miami Model" to St. Paul

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By Cyril Mychalejko (about the author) Page 2 of 2 page(s)

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Well, St. Paul's police department recently purchased 230 additional tasers so that none of its officers will be without one. It's uncertain whether each of the estimated 3,500 additional officers and secret service agents expected to "protect and serve" will have these weapons as well, to complement their guns loaded with rubber bullets (we hope) and pepper spray.

Which brings us back to Miami. After all the injuries, filed complaints of police brutality, hundreds of hours of video footage, baseless arrests, and sheer terror unleashed on the protesters advocating, of all things, fair trade, the city of Miami was forced to carry out a formal investigation of the security debacle. Miami's Civilian Investigative Panel, charged with providing independent oversight of the Miami Police Department, issued a report that stated distorted and sensationalist media coverage helped foster an environment that allowed police to use indiscriminate force, that "more time and attention was devoted to training personnel to protect property rather than persons and even less time was spent addressing the constitutional protections guaranteed to all," and there was and continued to be no accountability for police abuses.

But what inhibited the investigative panel from actually conducting a more thorough review was that legal attempts to acquire the Miami Police Department's Operational Plan for the FTAA protests were shot down in court. According to police officials, information in the Plan could jeopardize future security operations, not only in Miami, but nationally. Which brings us back to the RNC.

Ironically, an original printing of the Declaration of Independence will be in St. Paul for public viewing just in time for the convention. The Declaration states:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness."

Maybe something to think about.

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Cyril Mychalejko is an editor at www.UpsideDownWorld.org, an online magazine covering politics and activism in Latin America.

The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author
and do not necessarily reflect those of this website or its editors.

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