On-the-ground report from the skirmish on Thursday evening when anti-war activists attempted to march to the Xcel Energy Center and a description of the police state and its effects on the peace and social justice groups which protested the RNC

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Introduction

The situations and incidents that played out this week during the RNC all can be effectively examined if one considers the fact that protesters and activists in contrast to the police and officials in charge of security have a different idea of freedom. Protesters and activists believe the Constitution and the rule of law empowers them and gives them the right to practice free speech, peaceful assembly, and the right to not be subject to unreasonable search or seizure while the police and officials in charge of security (city, state, and federal officials who were part of plans related to what should be done with the 50 million dollars granted to the city for security during the RNC) believe freedom is the power to not have to operate under constraints that may check their power and limit the scope of what can be done if a situation arose where maximum security and force was necessary to diffuse that situation.

However, to be fair and all inclusive, not all protesters believe the Constitution allows people to organize. Believing it has no bearing on police interaction with protesters and activists, to these protesters assembling in the streets is a morally righteous act being carried out to bring to a halt war crimes, crimes against humanity, and other injustices being committed in our name. There’s some truth to that: police do not feel they should be constrained by the Constitution and want unchecked power in the same way that those in the Executive Branch of government want that branch to operate with unchecked power.

Operating under plausibility, one can suggest that this country is in a volatile situation. Pockets of resistance not seen since the 1980s when nuclear weapons, intervention in Latin America, and apartheid in South Africa was challenged by Americans are popping up all over this nation. People do not trust government and do not believe government will enact policies domestically and internationally which would emancipate humanity and create a morally righteous world that people should be able to live in. The people are taking matters into their own hands and are struggling to find ways to take powers from government that leaders in government do not feel the people should have.

Bringing this movement to empower people to take power away from government to an end is reason, presumably, for so many decisions and policies that lead to repression and suppression. The DNC and RNC are shining examples of how those in the halls of power have stunted movements working towards real change.

But, let’s be careful in how we characterize the security measures taken at the DNC and RNC. The appropriation of 50 million dollars for each convention and the police violence at the conventions, especially at the RNC, are all a result of the government (city, state, and federal) believing that in the same way foreign policy functions to protect our nation’s interests so to must our domestic policy function to protect our nation’s interests.

Those interests no longer are shared with the people of America from the poorest classes to the upper middle classes. The ruling elite stand alone in believing that Project for a New American Century policies or policy for empire is the way forward in the world.

All too many are ready to operate with a less draconian, fascistic, and ignorant system of values towards the world. “America is Number One” syndrome is being healed by elements within the country that are awakening people to the fact that America is number one for reasons we should not be proud about.

The Final Day of the Convention

In St. Paul, I juggled my duties. At some points, I was a citizen journalist intensely into the police violence on the streets. At other points, I was a camera operator, researcher, and production assistant for a documentary being put together by Polidoc Productions called, “Seriously Green.” Fortunately, the last day I had a great opportunity to play the role of citizen journalist and really get a sense of what protesters and activists had been up against throughout the convention.

I fed Rob Kall updates throughout the day, but allow me to piece together everything I fed him in more comprehensively.

Youth Against War and Racism called for schools in the Twin Cities area to participate in a students strike at 11 am on Thursday, Sept. 4th, the last day of the convention. It was unclear what schools participated and how many students actually participated, but around 500 students found their way to the state capitol for an antiwar rally from 12 pm to 2 pm. The group and others sympathetic to their calls for action joined the students in a permitted march from the state capitol building to an area not far from Harriet Island.

When the group came to the side of the road and congregated in an area waiting to make their way to Harriet Island, that was when I grew suspicious of the security situation in the city. I received notice through a phone call that the city was going to impose a “curfew” for protesters at 5 pm and any unpermitted march would be brought to a halt and result in arrests.

As I looked around, there was a noticeable absence of riot police. Only a few police on bicycles and motorcycles (5-10 police) were monitoring the youth who were getting food from the back of a truck and eating it in a tiny area before heading to Harriet Island, where they would have a peace picnic and continue to speak out against the war criminals in office.

I followed my intuition and walked back to the state capitol. What became of the students is unknown, but many like myself were walking back towards the 4 pm Anti-War Committee action, which is what set off the police violence Thursday evening.

On my way back to the capitol building, I looked up and down Cedar St to see riot police motioning to each other to guard corners up and down the street. The police were also lounging in chairs and sitting on the sides of the road chilling like they were on the beach picnicking. Nonetheless, they were prepared for something because as I walked closer to the stage I saw police on horseback under the trees nearby Cedar St. ready to gallop into the rally at any moment.

The rally had attracted around 1,000 protesters/activists and the police were surrounding the area but were not intruding on the rally yet.

All of a sudden two dozen bicycle cops swooped in to arrest a man and a woman lounging in the grass watching the rally. I will use the Minnesota Independent report to communicate exactly what I witnessed (and I have video which I would post but this video by WCCO captures the incident better than I did):

At 4:00 with music playing at the rally at the Capitol a team of one to two dozen bike-mounted police officers swept in from clear across the capitol lawn directly up to two young people, a man and a woman, who were lounging in the grass, formed a circle around them and arrested them. According to Sgt. John Lazoya of the St. Paul Police Department, the young man was a suspect in the shattering of the Macy’s store window. Lazoya said police officers had been given information with details about the young man on fliers before the concert. When they circled the suspects, the crowd gathered to hear the music surrounded the officers chanting “Let them go” and, as the pair were taken away in plastic handcuffs, “This is what a police state looks like.”

Lazoya said he didn’t have information on the woman who was with the man.

I was able to get low to the ground and videotape the arrest from beneath a swarm of press. I came inches away from being trapped in a circle of riot police that ran up to the bicycle cops to help them get the two arrestees out of the crowd of press and people. And I was a foot away from being trampled by a contingent of police on horseback that came in off of Cedar St. to also help bicycle police get the two arrestees out of the crowd.

The riot police used their batons to usher people out of the way while the horses, who were scared, pissed and shit all over the place.

The whole rally had become overshadowed by an imperial police presence. People were focused on police and had left the stage area.

Those running the rally, however, took a stand and spoke to the people explaining how the police intended to take away from our message and we should not allow our attention to be diverted.

Somebody suggested to me that the arrest was part of a police exercise to see how fast the police could secure the area if a “crowd control situation” had happened. The police on horseback, the riot police, and the bicycle police along with a few National Guard did make their way into the rally to trap protesters and disperse them in about 4 minutes.

What’s interesting is that the Minnesota Independent reports that further arrests happened after the arrest described above:

About ten minutes later, there was another situation behind the stage near the capitol building. One person, dressed as an activist medics — the informal medics who tend to protesters who are injured — were dragged away. Witnesses said two of the medics gave themselves up, and rumors were circulating that both were undercover police. When asked about this, Lazoya said it was the first he heard of the arrest, even though they happened a mere five minutes earlier nearby. [MPR reports the same.]

The Anti-War Committee was not deterred and rallied protesters/activists to march with them in an unpermitted march to the Xcel Energy Center.

Lazoya came up to the rally right before 5 pm and announced to everybody, according to the Minnesota Independent, “Your parade permit will expire at 5 pm… If you continue with your parade, you will be in violation of city ordinance CH366A.” It is unclear if everybody heard him, but there were Minnesota Peace Team members walking around to those in front of the capitol explaining that the action at 5 pm would be a situation where arrests were highly likely and so was the deployment of chemical agents to disperse people.

The march took off in the face of the trap police had setup for the protesters/activists.

Leaders chose to take the march through the capitol lawn, a brilliant move that momentarily created confusion within the police who were unsure of how to head the march off and secure it.

The march took a detour off of the lawn and onto a street that ran into John Ireland Blvd and then turned onto the bridge where the standoff between police and protesters occurred.

The police proceeded to make this worse than it needed to be, as always, by blocking an exit on to I-94 and by choosing to stop protesters on a bridge. There has not been a time when I was present that the police were not responsible for making the situation a chaotic mess and creating a traffic problem would be cover for eventually using violence to disperse protesters.

The police stopped the march on the bridge and instructed the protesters/activists to get off the road. The marchers went left and right emptying off the street and the street’s meridian. Divided, the marchers expressed a desire to continue the march but were incapable of getting out of the secured area which had bicycle police preventing an exit and police at the front of the march preventing movement forward.

The courageous and morally righteous leaders of the Anti-War Committee did everything possible to hold the action together by delivering chants to agitate all those focused in on the situation on the bridge.

After about 20 minutes, the possibility of violence escalated as bicycle cops put on their gas masks. The riot police added more gear to their persons in preparation for what would happen.

Two snow plows came onto the bridge to be used to push protesters to disperse.

At this point, it could easily be said that the police had allowed this to escalate to a level that would certainly endanger innocent civilians. The press had been attracted to the scene because of the police presence and for the same reason so had hundreds of bystanders.

In total, I would say there were between 2,000-3,000 people down in this area braced for whatever would happen.

A member of the press was wearing a gas mask and courteously informed all present that they should step back because the police were planning to fire tear gas and rubber bullets. I was unable to figure out what news organization he was affiliated with.

Away from the scene and prior to this, I had received reports from ColdSnapLegal’s twitter on my phone that informed me that city workers were informed that they might want to leave early because something would be happening.

There are two lines of thinking. Those with the mindset of Tom Murphy, who commented on Rob Kall’s update, would say if only the protesters/activists had listened to the city and not held an unpermitted march than nothing would have happened. I operate with a different mindset.

In Denver, several unpermitted marches took place during the Democratic National Convention. The city received 50 million dollars for security and they were developing contingency plans for security way before the DNC came to town. But, the city was able to work with organizers to allow unpermitted marches to occur; for example, IVAW’s march was unpermitted.

The whole situation begs the question: Should protesters/activists be required to arrange for permits in order to peacefully assemble?

Regrettably or fortunately, I had to leave the scene just as the tension was reaching its highest point. It was time for me to fulfill my duties as a camera operator, researcher, and production assistant and go help film the Open the Debates Nader Super Rally in Minneapolis.

I drove off cringing as ColdSnapLegal collective notified via Twitter that a ten minute warning had been given to protesters to disperse or chemical agents would be deployed.

ColdSnapLegal’s play-by-play of the situation I missed is as follows and describes what happened. Video of the situation is above ColdSnapLegal's coverage:

VIDEO

confirmed reports of 250-300 cops "of all walks," aggresively pushing crowd into park to rice at john ireland. LOs on site

reports of cops giving 10min warning before deployment of chemical agents at j. ireland

Report of police donning gas masks at kobasha and cedar, joined by line of riot police with tear gas.

confirmed: 5 min warning to disperse given at cedar and 12th. its 630

marchers now being detained one by one and led to police vans

mpls Riot cops suiting up in mpls at hennepin and 4th; going to st. paul--according to report from someone on site

victim reports of police clubbing, pepper spraying at march in st. paul

riot cops or swat team coming, reported heading from minneapolis at washington bridge black vans, SUVs.

27 arrested at 12th and cedar. police arresting many of march leadership, reporter (susan from uptake)

report that riot police have arrived at 12th and Cedar

reports of concussion grenades and tear gas deployed at University and Rice

This account, posted on Minnesota Independent, which offers a more comprehensive report on Thursday than I can offer, is particularly invigorating:

A medic and some members of the Mn Peace Team surround a young protester writhing and screaming on the ground, clawing at his eyes. “We need someone to come and take this young man to a hospital,” says a Peace Team member into a phone. The protester is Misael Ivan Lopez, age 20, who grew up in East St. Paul and now lives in Uptown Minneapolis. In between gasps for air and rolling around waiting for his eyes to clear, he related what happened.

“I went to the wrong circle up there,” he said, motioning toward University Avenue, “and I got closed in. They weren’t trying to close me in, but it was just like how everything was happening. Everyone was riding around and I ended up being by myself with another guy on a bike in a fucking square full of guys who were like—they tackled me as I was trying to put myself on the ground. I was already face down when a guy threw my camera and pulled my stuff off me and turned my head [toward him] and sprayed me. They grabbed my face and sprayed me after I had already dropped down and fetal-ed.” A medic put another dose of water into his eyes. “I saw him coming so I hit the ground because I didn’t want to get hit—I fetal-ed,” he repeated. “They stretched me out and turned me so I was on my back and another guy pulled my goggles off and he sprayed me. My goggles were already tilted a little bit”—he pointed to a space between his eye and his left ear—“and the guy ripped them off the rest of the way and sprayed me. Aaargh!” he yelled, in pain and frustration, and flipped back on his side. Fetal-ed.

There's more video and photos here in this Twin Cities Independent post.

396 were arrested Thursday night. Thursday night brought the total number of people arrested during the RNC to over 800.

We should all take the time to thank the brave independent, alternative, and corporate journalists who hung around and were subsequently arrested for believing they needed to be their to cover the scene. What was happening was news and arrests of journalists were utterly gratuitous. See this press conference for more on the violent suppression of journalists.

What Is At Stake Here? (Or What Was at Stake There?)

Laura Flanders of GRITtv posed this question to a panel, which addressed the police violence during the RNC in a live broadcast on September 4th, after McCain had delivered his acceptance speech. (*Currently, the episode has not aired or is not posted online for linking to.)

Rosa Clemente, the vice presidential candidate for the Green Party in this 2008 election, was part of the panel and had also just finished addressing a crowd at the Nader Super Rally in Minneapolis. Her address to the crowd focused on the police violence that had happened all week, violence which had greatly affected her while she was on the ground organizing with the Poor People’s Campaign for Economic Human Rights.

What is at stake here shall be considered after I address what was at stake.

What was at stake was whether or not the progressive forces that organize in the streets of America had a strategy for organizing that can effectively diminish police, press, and government efforts to marginalize protests.

The week proved that repression and suppression through raids, unreasonable searches and seizure, and violations of civil liberties like freedom of speech and freedom to assemble peacefully could successfully deter Americans from speaking out against their government. Repression and suppression could keep the number of people who participated in protests low and make sure the Republican Party’s convention would not be overshadowed.

And since Hurricane Gustav significantly affected the first day of the convention, it is worth asking what effect (if any) this had on decisions by the city to give police the right to engage in violence when engaging in so-called crowd control so protests would not detract from the convention.

What was at stake was whether or not those in the streets would find the moral clarity to make the actions less about standing up to the police and more about recognizing how the PATRIOT Act, the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Act, and other anti-terrorism bills (especially the state anti-terrorism bill in Minnesota 2002) have created and allowed for the police state protesters lived under from the last week of August when raids occurred to the end of the Republican National Convention.

Leaders of groups in St. Paul needed to formulate a response to all the police violence that would have included a rally & march to the Xcel Energy Center on Friday or Saturday and would have set the record straight for the people in the Twin Cities, America, and the world. Or, group leaders needed a Day of Resistance organized in the way a Day of Resistance was organized on March 20th to mark the fifth anniversary of the Iraq War.

Now, what is at stake is how leaders and groups present at the DNC and RNC go home and take their experiences and use them to formulate a way forward that challenges a system which grants 50 million dollars to a city for security that has no problem with restraining free speech and peaceful assembly violently.

City Council members in the Twin Cities are speaking out against the suppression and repression that happened to people during the RNC. But, they must realize an overwhelming majority of officials in the state supported the Minnesota Anti-Terrorism Bill of 2002, which gave the state power to charge the RNC 8 (or 9) with “furtherance of terrorism” charges so that the penalty could be increased by fifty percent.

John Conyers, the man who has dragged his feet relentlessly on the impeachment of Cheney and Bush, pledges an investigation. But, does he realize that votes for PATRIOT Act and its expansions and also votes that have kept the “war on terror” going have created the system of repression and suppression journalists, protesters, and innocent civilians faced in St. Paul?

For the record, Obama and McCain have not responded to the police violence in St. Paul during the RNC. One might be able to understand why Obama and McCain said nothing about the police state in Denver, but the police state in St. Paul cannot be ignored.

Bob Barr, the Libertarian Party presidential candidate said on Democracy Now!, “the preemptive use of police force to try and identify those that might be demonstrating, might be pushing a particular point of view, and using the powers of the government to stop them in advance, sort of this notion of preemptive war applied to preemptive law enforcement” disturbed him while in St. Paul for Ron Paul’s Rally for the Republic.

Cynthia McKinney, the Green Party presidential candidate, did not issue a public statement on the police state in St. Paul, but her vice-presidential pick, Rosa Clemente, has been telling press and protesters/activists what she thinks of the police violence bluntly especially since she was at the scene of police concussion grenading protesters on Tuesday night. (I will post the speech that all protesters and activists should have heard delivered to them in St. Paul when the video is posted by the Nader/Gonzalez campaign or somebody else.)

Nader/Gonzalez issued this statement on the police state in St. Paul. In a press release given to press who attended the Open the Debates Super Rally on Thursday, Sept. 4th titled, “Ralph Nader and Matt Gonzalez Speak Out Against Excessive Use of Force,” the perennial presidential candidate Ralph Nader and the fire breathing Matt Gonzalez responded to the “massive police overreaction to totally peaceful protest:

The role of the police is to control violence and illegal activity. There was neither in the events we are describing. The officers went far beyond that to violating the right to free speech and assembly.

We strongly oppose the uncalled for arrest of numerous citizens, and the excessive use of force and tactics of intimidation including rubber bullets and tear gas, against lawful protesters.

We expected more balance and common sense from the supervisors and trainers of the Saint Paul police force.

 

I find this to be naïve when considering what happened at the 2004 Republican National Convention to protesters/activists. But, what’s important is that Nader/Gonzalez acknowledged the police violence unlike Obama and McCain.

Therefore, we can presume that a vote for Obama or McCain is a vote to continue police violence towards protesters/activists. A vote for Bob Barr, Cynthia McKinney, or Ralph Nader in this presidential election is a vote to stop police violence and allow protesters/activists the right to freedom of speech and the right to peacefully assemble.

Here’s a GRITtv video to wrap up this lengthy post. Thank you for giving the police violence in St. Paul your attention by reading to the end.

Authors Bio:
Kevin Gosztola is managing editor of Shadowproof Press. He also produces and co-hosts the weekly podcast, "Unauthorized Disclosure." He was an editor for OpEdNews.com