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September 5, 2008 at 09:12:47
Live OEN Street Medic Report From Occupied St Paul by Michael Cavlan Page 1 of 2 page(s) |
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This is my first, live report from the action in St Paul and Minneapolis. It will be brief and followed by more as my primary concern is acting as a Street Medic, treating some of the victims of police brutality here. First, let me assure you that despite the flat out lies being portrayed in the corporate media, each and every attack by police here was unprovoked and upon peaceful protesters. Where there have been acts of violence from the "anarchists" has been a reaction to these unprovoked attacks. I can personally testify to this as I am unencumbered by corporate media editors and so am free to tell the truth. Corporate media journalists are also witnessing this but not reporting it. As many of you know, this started a week before the RNC. Minneapolis and St Paul police raided the houses of local activists, detained some and then raided the house where out of town journalists were staying, taking their video equipment. In the weeks before the Republicans came to town, myself and other local activists helped organize clinics and networks for the local and out of town Street Medics. We were to be very busy and of course it is not over yet.
Day One
There was a march, thru downtown St Paul that had about 30,000 people. It was quite peaceful. Apparently, the police will not attack large marches only smaller ones, as we were to find out. I worked Medic duty for this one. We had arrived at the Capitol in St Paul, when I started getting calls. The police were firing rubber bullets, concussion grenades and deploying tear gas and other chemical weapons downtown. I rushed to get downtown and like all the rest of us, met a wall of police. They had cordoned off all of downtown. None of us could get in to help our friends in a smaller march of young people.
I and others went back to the clinic site and waited. After a few hours, no-one was coming in. It turns out that masses were getting tasered, maced, pepper-sprayed and arrested. This of course includes Amy Goodman of Democracy Now. Street Medic duty became jail support. Those of us who were Nurses, worked with NLG lawyers and called the jails, with lists of people and did our best to ensure that people who needed medications got them. Many had originally not but apparently our work paid off.
Day Two
There were events everywhere, including free concerts at the Capitol. I was deployed to the Poor People March at Pears Park in St Paul. At first it was quiet, with speeches etc. Then the police arrested a journalist with her video camera. Many in the crowd ran to this, including myself and my team buddy. Medics worked in teams because police would snatch up single medics and no-one would know they were gone until it was too late.
At this point, I was what is called a marked medic. I had on light blue scrub tops with a large Red Cross taped on my chest, arms and backpack. I hear "we need a medic over here" so we responded. Apparently, the police had maced a member of the "Minnesota Peace Team." These were all people marked in bright green vests, who were working with the police to contain violence. The two that were maced, full in the face were both 70 year old men. For the record, the peace teams had been very successful in de-escalating violence. I ran over and treated one and my buddy treated the other one. While I was doing so, someone from the crowd ran over and said "buddy, get out of here, I heard the cops say 'get the medic in blue.'"
I hightailed out of there, ditching my blue scrubs. Ironically, as I did so a young man has a seizure, fell and hit his head hard right in front of me. I was still a medic, just unmarked now. I and others treated him until an ambulance arrived and took him to the hospital. Again, for the record we were now getting reports that the police were specifically targeting journalists and medics all over. We were also receiving reports of mass arrests of legal marches and people being beaten at the SEIU Rally, Whipple Free Concert and elsewhere.
By this time, the Poor People's March had left so I joined them. We marched to the Ramsey County Jail where hundreds had been taken as a show of solidarity to them. During this march, there were at least three undercover cops were discovered and outed. We then marched to the Capitol. Rage Against The Machine had set up a free concert there but then the police banned it. So the attendees joined us and we marched back to downtown St Paul. We marched right up to the Excel Center, chanted for a while. At this time the police gave a dispersal order. We knew what that meant. They threw gas and concussion grenades into the crowd and then opened up with rubber bullets, wooden baton rounds, tear gas etc etc.
My team treated another young lady who had been maced in the face and delivered her to the clinic, to get cleaned up from the burning chemicals on her face, eyes, arms and clothes. By the way, this stuff hurts even when you only put your exposed skin on someone who was hit by it.
Day Three
I attended some organizational meeting early in the day, so my morning was fairly quiet. Early afternoon I reported to the clinic for duty. We were going to go downtown when we got a call. There was a need for Legal and medics STAT. Off went our little team.
Dokota Occupation of Clearwater.
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Thank you, Michael!
I know the street medics had one of the most intense weeks of anyone! I'd also heard rumors that street medics were targeted and your report confirms it. I've been out at some of the same events but I learned a lot from your report. It takes many eyes and ears. Thanks for your dedication. by Kathlyn Stone (46 articles, 227 quicklinks, 27 diaries, 690 comments [1 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Friday, Sep 5, 2008 at 1:03:50 PM  (0+)
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Thank You, for Both Report and Selfless Service!
Bless you Michael, for BEING THERE and for the dedication to GoodWilling perseverance evident in the unselfishly and courageously proferred service you and ALL those who have been likewise volunteering so to serve, including those who persevered as peaceful protestors. have given. You have all served us as frontline troops, defenders in this war against us and our constitutional republic itself! You are truly "our troops" that must be supported by the concommitant actions of us all! To those not yet supporting these our front-line citizen troops: Is this acceptable conduct for either branch of "the party", democrat or republican by name, or any government, or agents thereof, whether town, city, county, state or federal, to conduct and condone and to be censoring out of the public airwaves and print medias???? Do you want to live in a nation that promulgates such nazi terrorist tactics upon its citizens? Are you involved in doing ANYthing about it? Do you notify all those who are supposedly your "representatives" in "our government" that this nazi version of brutal and unwarranted imposition of martial law is beyond barbaric, is unconstitutonal, and is heinously and totally unacceptable??? This brownshirt deployment IS truly disgusting, terribly disturbing, despicable, and a great sounding call of alarm warning of what is decending, of the darkness decending here and now upon us all if people don't start, NOW, en masse, actively STANDING UP TOGETHER and DOING something to put an end to it!! It is getting late in the progress of this evil coup d'etat program that has article by article eaten up our constitution and flushed it as it emerged out the other end of their voraciously predatory nature. The gestapo conduct for the DNC convention was horribly unacceptable enough, but having "gotten away with that", the RNC version is beyond the pale and gone on over well into the darkly demonic realm that is imposing itself entirely into, upon and over our existence. It is a declaration that GoodWill shall BE OBSOLETE and no Peace nor any Prince of Peace shall be allowed to prevail! This unfolding horror is being reported widely in the "alternative press" around the net, though I can imagine it getting cheered on instead, at places like "free republic" as all good freepers do, like the good germans before them! May they be released now, from such tenaciously separating personal affliction!! We must get ON with it now! IMPEACH THEM!!! ASAP!!! (-:G by G Achin (1 articles, 0 quicklinks, 3 diaries, 110 comments [9 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Friday, Sep 5, 2008 at 3:58:02 PM (0+)
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thanks, Michael
you are a brave and couragous soul... thanks for your reports. by Rady Ananda (182 articles, 374 quicklinks, 49 diaries, 1718 comments [201 recommended, 2 rejected]) on Friday, Sep 5, 2008 at 5:56:31 PM (0+)
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Yeah? Well, kiss kiss...
No doubt, you appreciate having your ego stroked as much as I do, brother. As you know... so much easier to comment on the doorknobs than to talk about the house. But here it is: We now have reports that Minneapolis has been legally put in the hands of the Department of Homeland Security. All of our elected officials and the media have failed us. The question is, what do we do about it? Oh... way too difficult. So, thank you for being a front-line witness as the USA completes its journey to being Nazi Germany. So much easier to salute you as a messenger... and ignore your message. We know the answer. We pretend we do not. You are in good company, brother. by waldopaper (15 articles, 3 quicklinks, 34 diaries, 609 comments [84 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Friday, Sep 5, 2008 at 6:34:57 PM (0+)
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We don't want no drama
Why does this come to my mind after reading "The Tale of the Busy Street Medic"? "...They say I'm really sexy, The boys they wanna sex me. They always standing next to me, Always dancing next to me, Tryin' a feel my hump, hump. Lookin' at my lump, lump. You can look but you can't touch it, If you touch it I'ma start some drama, You don't want no drama, No, no drama, no, no, no, no drama So don't pull on my hand boy, You ain't my man, boy, I'm just tryn'a dance boy, And move my hump," - "My Humps" by the Black Eyed Peas - click here . Oh, I know why! We don't want no drama... no, no drama, no, no, no, no drama. You haven't a clue as to what a real combat medic (MOS 68W) is required to do in a real firefight - not the "Siege of St. Paul". And yet you play up the drama of walking the "mean streets filled with Gestapo agents" and rinsing out people's eyes that have been exposed to CS Gas or pepperspray. Oh yeah - that's identical to applying an MRE bag to a sucking chest wound received from the passage of a 7.62 mm round just so the injured can breath! And the absolute HORROR of WALKING the streets with law enforcement all around... Dude, I hope the PTSD holds off a little while longer... Get... real... "Taste death, live life", Buddy. by Tom Murphy (3 articles, 5 quicklinks, 16 diaries, 2103 comments [55 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Saturday, Sep 6, 2008 at 12:52:42 AM (0+)
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Reply: Your Soul Exposed Tom
Mike is out there helping people and you find fault with it. What kind of person thinks like that? by Bob Gormley (1 articles, 0 quicklinks, 3 diaries, 1094 comments [65 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Saturday, Sep 6, 2008 at 6:48:24 AM (0+)
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Reply: My soul, indeed...
While I don't doubt he was helping people, which is always a good thing, Mr. Cavlan's story doesn't focus on this help. Instead, he makes certain to castigate "The Man" and paint a wickedly black image of the state - one that I'm fairly certain did not reflect reality. Mind you, I'm not claiming that Mr. Cavlan lied, but the "heat of the moment" tends to taint one's perception of the events in which the memory is set. The sporadic sprinkling of street medic this and street medic that in the yarn seemed overly dramatic to me (as in, "Hey World, check me out!"). Now here, I'm probably tainting my reaction to Mr. Cavlan experiences with my own from a decidedly deadly environment where life and death was a matter of course - not happenstance exemplified by the RNC protests. by Tom Murphy (3 articles, 5 quicklinks, 16 diaries, 2103 comments [55 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Saturday, Sep 6, 2008 at 9:57:54 AM (0+)
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Dept. of Event Planning and Public Relations
Let's see, we take a bunch of low-IQ Thugs and dress them with body armor, give them weapons and the authority to beat people up, in an enviroment with high-IQ peaceful protesters. What do you think is going to happen? http://www.prisonexp.org/ by Keystone (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 299 comments [78 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Saturday, Sep 6, 2008 at 5:31:53 AM (0+)
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homeland secure
Mission accomplished. No more protesting. Violence and police riots. Unanamously given the seal of approval bi partisan. Don't forget to call your congressman boys and girls, Thanks for your reporting. Are you still non partisan? What did you take away from this? I'm sorry are those questions that are inappropriate to ask a journalist? by robert braunstein (60 articles, 0 quicklinks, 21 diaries, 194 comments [40 recommended, 1 rejected]) on Saturday, Sep 6, 2008 at 7:35:35 AM (0+)
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