Labels: Christmas, Minneapolis, Minnesota, snow
Submit To Propeller
posted by profmarcus at
12/25/2010
Photos by Lindsay Beyerstein of security forces tear-gassing a peaceful Poor Peoples March during the Republican National Convention, Sept. 2, 2008. Set to music by Junior Murvin.
Several activist groups held an outdoor press conference in St. Paul this morning to decry police brutality against peaceful protesters. Last night, police filed tear gas into a peaceful crowd on 7th Street when the group did not immediately scatter upon the order to disperse -- rapid egress was hampered by the fact that the the police had encircled groups of people and locked down intersections at both ends of the block.
The demonstrators were part of the Poor People's March. The March is not affiliated with the anarchist groups whose members destroyed property during a demonstration on Monday. When some anarchist protesters joined the procession, organizers asked them to leave or move to the back. They were concerned that the anarchists might cause trouble or attract unwanted police attention.
Willy J.R. Flemming, the director of security for PPM, told the press conference that he didn't see the anarchists confront the police at any time. Flemming is an organizer for the Coalition to Protect Public Housing and a trained UN human rights observer.
"I observed a lot of instigation and escalation of violence [on the part of the police]," Flemming said.
Flemming expressed frustration that the anarchists' tactics and the police response were overshadowing the march's human rights message.
"Instead of trying to convince the police that you're something, convince the people that you're there with them," Flemming said.
Labels: fascism, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Police State, Poor People's March, protestors, Republican Convention, St. Paul
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
9/04/2008
Democracy Now's Amy Goodman, Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar were arrested by the Minneapolis Police Department. Charged with conspiracy to riot.
Amy Goodman and Two Democracy Now! Producers Unlawfully Arrested At the RNC
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
www.democracynow.org
September 1, 2008
Contact:
Denis Moynihan 917-549-5000
Mike Burke 646-552-5107, mike@democracynow.org
ST. PAUL, MN—Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman was unlawfully arrested in downtown St. Paul, Minnesota at approximately 5 p.m. local time. Police violently manhandled Goodman, yanking her arm, as they arrested her.
Goodman was arrested while attempting to free two Democracy Now! producers who were being unlawfully detained. They are Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar. Kouddous and Salazar were arrested while they carried out their journalistic duties in covering street demonstrations at the Republican National Convention. Goodman's crime appears to have been defending her colleagues and the freedom of the press.
Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher told Democracy Now! that Kouddous and Salazar were being arrested on suspicion of rioting. They are currently being held at the Ramsey County jail in St. Paul.
Democracy Now! is calling on all journalists and concerned citizens to call the office of Mayor Chris Coleman and the Ramsey County Jail and demand the immediate release of Goodman, Kouddous and Salazar. These calls can be directed to: Chris Rider from Mayor Coleman's office at 651-266-8535 and the Ramsey County Jail at 651-266-9350 (press extension 0).
Democracy Now! stands by Goodman, Kouddous and Salazar and condemns this action by Twin Cities law enforcement as a clear violation of the freedom of the press and the First Amendment rights of these journalists.
During the demonstration in which they were arrested law enforcement officers used pepper spray, rubber bullets, concussion grenades and excessive force. Several dozen others were also arrested during this action.
Amy Goodman is one of the most well-known and well-respected journalists in the United States. She has received journalism's top honors for her reporting and has a distinguished reputation of bravery and courage. The arrest of Goodman, Kouddous and Salazar is a transparent attempt to intimidate journalists from the nation's leading independent news outlet.
Labels: Amy Goodman, civil rights, Democracy Now, Minneapolis, Republican Convention, rioting, St. Paul
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
9/01/2008
As the police attacks on protesters in Minnesota continue -- see this video of the police swarming a bus transporting members of Earth Justice, seizing the bus and leaving the group members stranded on the side of the highway -- it appears increasingly clear that it is the Federal Government that is directing this intimidation campaign. Minnesota Public Radio reported yesterday that "the searches were led by the Ramsey County Sheriff's office. Deputies coordinated searches with the Minneapolis and St. Paul police departments and the Federal Bureau of Investigation."
Today's Star Tribune added that the raids were specifically "aided by informants planted in protest groups." Back in May, Marcy Wheeler presciently noted that the Minneapolis Joint Terrorist Task Force -- an inter-agency group of federal, state and local law enforcement led by the FBI -- was actively recruiting Minneapolis residents to serve as plants, to infiltrate "vegan groups" and other left-wing activist groups and report back to the Task Force about what they were doing. There seems to be little doubt that it was this domestic spying by the Federal Government that led to the excessive and truly despicable home assaults by the police yesterday.
So here we have a massive assault led by Federal Government law enforcement agencies on left-wing dissidents and protesters who have committed no acts of violence or illegality whatsoever, preceded by months-long espionage efforts to track what they do. And as extraordinary as that conduct is, more extraordinary is the fact that they have received virtually no attention from the national media and little outcry from anyone. And it's not difficult to see why. As the recent "overhaul" of the 30-year-old FISA law illustrated -- preceded by the endless expansion of surveillance state powers, justified first by the War on Drugs and then the War on Terror -- we've essentially decided that we want our Government to spy on us without limits. There is literally no police power that the state can exercise that will cause much protest from the political and media class and, therefore, from the citizenry.
Beyond that, there is a widespread sense that the targets of these raids deserve what they get, even if nothing they've done is remotely illegal. We love to proclaim how much we cherish our "freedoms" in the abstract, but we despise those who actually exercise them. The Constitution, right in the very First Amendment, protects free speech and free assembly precisely because those liberties are central to a healthy republic -- but we've decided that anyone who would actually express truly dissident views or do anything other than sit meekly and quietly in their homes are dirty trouble-makers up to no good, and it's therefore probably for the best if our Government keeps them in check, spies on them, even gets a little rough with them.
After all, if you don't want the FBI spying on you, or the Police surrounding and then invading your home with rifles and seizing your computers, there's a very simple solution: don't protest the Government. Just sit quietly in your house and mind your own business. That way, the Government will have no reason to monitor what you say and feel the need to intimidate you by invading your home. Anyone who decides to protest -- especially with something as unruly and disrespectful as an unauthorized street march -- gets what they deserve.
Labels: Civil liberties, fascism, FBI, FBI JTTF, FISA, Glenn Greenwald, Minneapolis, Republican Convention, Republicans, Salon, St. Paul
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
9/01/2008
Crackdown begins: Food Not Bombs house among Saturday raidsMinneapolis Police Department officers stand guard outside the Food Not Bombs house.
Photo: Jeff Severns GuntzelMnIndy RNC reporter Jeff Severns Guntzel is at the Minneapolis Food Not Bombs house, which was raided by police this morning. Facts are still coming in, but Guntzel says that at 8 a.m. neighbors near the home, located at 2301 23rd Avenue South, reported hearing a loud bang followed by yelling. A single police squad car was parked out front. When Guntzel arrived he saw eight or nine officers enter the house in what he says is a joint operation between officers of the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Department, the Minneapolis Police Depatment, and the FBI. According to one witness who was in the house at the time of the raid, the action is related to last night’s raid on the RNC Welcoming Committee’s “convergence space.” Several other spaces have been raided this morning.
Around 9:20, two Minneapolis Police Property & Evidence trucks pulled up. Present were a Hennepin County Sheriffs’ crime lab truck, a Ramsey County Sheriffs’ squad and an MPD squad, plus at least four unmarked cars parked facing the wrong direction in traffic. Police tape is marking off the yard.
Two men are released from the Food Not Bombs house as reporters,
neighbors, and supporters look on.
Photo: Jeff Severns Guntzel
At one point a five-year-old boy was escorted from the home by police. In what Guntzel calls a “sweet moment,” the boy told police he wanted his markers, and the officer went in and came back out a few minutes later. “These are the only colors I could find,” the officer said. “Did I get the right stuff?”
As MnIndy reported on Thursday, rumors of a weekend sweep of activist organizations have been swirling. In the last 12 hours, at least three other sites, from the RNC Welcoming Committee’s “convergence space” in St. Paul to sites in South Minneapolis have been raided.
Officers and agents from the Minneapolis Police Department, Hennepin County Sheriff's Office, Ramsey County Sheriff's office and the FBI collaborated on the raid.
Photo: Jeff Severns Guntzel9:45 A woman named Heather Adams just came out of the Food Not Bombs house and gave Guntzel the following account: She arrived from Chicago at 3 a.m. this morning with plans to protest at the RNC. At 8 a.m. she woke up to find police in the house wearing riot gear and camouflage flak jackets. She says they had rifles drawn. Adams has a broken ankle, and when officers ordered her to roll over on her stomach, she says she was slow to do so and the officer, she says, pushed her with his boot.
Adams says one arrest was made. Nathanael Secor, a main organizer of FNB, was arrested on charges of conspiracy to riot, she says.
9:54: Guntzel says a Ramsey County warrant was served, and the house is now occupied only by law enforcement agents. Evidence has been taken out the back of the house. Adams said law enforcement took photos of maps of St. Paul which were present in the house, as well as house plants. Adams also said that a city inspector was on site as well. The house, according to one law enforcement official, has links to the RNC Welcoming Committee.
10:03: Guntzel has in hand a Hennepin County warrant. It indicates law enforcement was searching for incendiary devices, smoke bombs, urine and feces, and other items. See a transcription of the warrant here. [Update: PDF]
10:44: The RNC Welcoming Committee issued a press release noting that four individuals were arrested in the raids: Monica Bicking, Eryn Trimmer, Garrett Fitzgerald, and Nathanael Secor. The press release also notes that “Search warrants for 2 of the 3 raided houses listed only one name apiece, each of individuals not present at the houses and, thus, not arrested.”
Two organizations said today they filed an emergency motion with the court Saturday to try to prevent police from seizing video equipment and cell phones used to document officers' conduct.
The move came after the Ramsey County sheriff's office raided on Friday night a center used by protest groups in St. Paul, and three Minneapolis homes Saturday. Five people were arrested. Sheriff Bob Fletcher said they are key leaders of the RNC Welcoming Committee, a self-described anarchist group.
The National Lawyers Guild and Communities United Against Police Brutality filed the motion late Saturday, according to a press release.
The release said "examples of police interference with the right to document their conduct" included seizure of equipment in Minneapolis from three journalists with Glass Bead Collective and targeting of journalists during a raid in St. Paul on Saturday.
Communities United Against Police Brutality president Michelle Gross said she was video taping the sheriff's office raid in St. Paul on Saturday night when deputies shut off her camera.
"This action prevented her from documenting the incident in its entirety," the press release said. "Despite their actions, Ms. Gross was able to capture about 7 1/2 minutes of video and audio of the beginning of the raid, including use by deputies of a battering ram to force open the door to a upstairs theater where families were watching a film.
The groups are holding a press conference this afternoon.
Labels: Civil liberties, fascism, Minneapolis, Republican Convention, Republicans, St. Paul
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
8/31/2008
The Idaho Republican wrote in a sworn statement that he never engaged in "offensive, obscene, abusive, boisterous or noisy conduct" in the restroom at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport on June 11, when he was arrested in a sex sting that led to demands from many Republicans that the three-term senator resign. Craig has said that if he cannot overturn the guilty plea by a self-imposed Sept. 30 deadline, he intends to step down.
Craig's attorneys filed motions in Hennepin County District Court asking for a speedy hearing and arguing that the plea should be waived because the undercover officer who arrested Craig had promised the senator he would not call the news media -- a major concern to Craig because the Idaho Statesman newspaper had been investigating his sexual orientation after allegations from a gay rights activist.
"Deeply panicked about the events, and based on [the officer's] representations to me regarding the potential outcome, my interest in handling the matter expeditiously, and the risk that protracting the issue could lead to unnecessary publicity, I did not seek the advice of an attorney . . . and I made the decision on that date to seek a guilty plea," Craig said in his statement filed with the court.
Labels: gay, Idaho, Larry Craig, Minneapolis, US Senate
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
9/11/2007
Labels: bridge collapse, homophobia, Minneapolis, Westboro Baptist Church
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
8/07/2007
An alternative look at NEWS THAT MATTERS: current events, politics, opinion, perspective, discussion, analysis, issues, debate, and insight - national and global.
Reno |
London |
 |
 |
