Fascism At Home
A St. Paul resident who wishes to remain anonymous answered a query from Beachwood HQ about protesters at the Republican National Convention there last week seen on TV breaking store windows and trampling on police cars. Were these just a bunch of idiots? How can we feel sympathetic to the mass arrests made? This was our source’s response.
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Yes there were people breaking stuff. But not 1,000 people doing so. which is how many people were arrested. This is bullshit. The Mpls. PD has been using this tactic on any kinds of protesters since the ’90s: You arrest everyone, EVERYONE who’s there, whether they’re actually committing “crimes” or not. Then you let them all go with tickets. It’s an insidious tactic aimed at stifling dissent and discouraging people from even showing up, which apparently is legal. Apparently you can arrest someone for just
showing up to yell about something. When did this become constitutional? When did it become OK for cops to detain you when you’re not breaking anything & you’re unarmed? I’ve NEVER seen that happen to anti-abortion nuts, who threaten people with death on sidewalks & who actually DO kill people.
When cops are free to do this, it IS a fascist state. When you can be arrested and hauled off in a van for just standing on a public street, it IS a fascist state. When your arrest is being based on the content of your speech & who it is you’re protesting against, it IS fascist state.
Two other things that happened in St. Paul that are EXTREMELY worrying, especially to us as so-called “new media” journalists. One is the lengths the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Dept. (headed by a corrupt sheriff who once closed down a League of Women Voters meeting because he didn’t like what people were saying about him) to infiltrate protest groups before the convention even started. The cutting edge of anti-free speech fascism right now is local PDs being empowered by the DHS to act as “terrorism cops.” They’re being trained by the Bushies to go undercover and infiltrate legitimate opposition groups . . . this is a method of course honed by the Chicago cops and now is being inculcated into every local PD in the land. There were several armed, preemptive raids on protesters . . . again, all arrested, all manhandled, all let go with misdemeanor tickets and fire code violations. All aimed at intimidating free speech and quashing dissent.
The other VERY worrying thing was the targeting of “new media.” They were singled out for especially harsh treatment. The iWitness people who document police abuse were spied on, tailed, infiltrated and arrested even before the convention began. This was reportedly on the advice of the New York City PD, who were made to pay out millions of dollars because their abuse of protesters was filmed by iWitness. People with cameras who didn’t have RNC credentials (and some who DID like Amy Goodman) were stopped and questioned for standing on public streets and merely taking pictures or video of buildings. Anyone with a camera or notebook who weren’t from one of the mainstream media sources were stopped, searched and intimidated.
This even happened to some mainstreamers, like AP photogs and KARE-TV cameraman. Apparently, being a media person covering protests now means that you, too, are going to be arrested. For doing nothing wrong. For standing on a public street. When did this become constitutional? I’d like to know.
It was very, very disappointing that Mayor Chris Coleman, who was overwhelmingly elected in 2006 because he was more progressive than his predecessor, the Bush-endorsing Dem Randy Kelly, would not question any of this. I can see where maybe he wouldn’t be able to control all this police abuse because much of it was being instigated from Washington. Still, he was ultimately complicit in this horrible display because he raised absolutely no concerns about the violations of free speech. Like all the apologists, he focused on a few anarchists and used their antics as justification for mass arrests and intimidation. It was disappointing because it shows that the desperate need of cities for revenue in an era when our formerly GOP-run state legislature has slashed aid to cities to the bone trumps all else, when draining dirty tourist petrodollars from the prime purveyors of unchecked militarism in the world is more important the rights of people to protest it.
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In “Wrong Place, Wrong Time, Wrong Lessons From The RNC,” from today’s Minneapolis Star-Tribune, columnist Nick Coleman writes:
In June 2006, referring to the intentions of Twin Cities boosters to lure either the Democratic or the Republican national convention here in 2008, I wrote:
“Why wait? Let’s arrest thousands of people right now, hold them in barbed-wire cages, pay millions in overtime to cops, close off downtown, disrupt transportation (and) strew garbage around the streets.
I’m sorry I was right . . .
So it is strange to hear Officialdom, including my brother, the mayor of St. Paul, proclaiming the convention an unqualified success. From many perspectives, yes, it WAS a success. Folks watching TV probably didn’t know or care whether they were looking at St. Paul or Sao Paolo, but Minnesota looked good to Minnesotans, and we like that . . .
One thing that was hard to swallow was the militarized statelet in St. Paul, with tactics and security designed for worst-case scenarios that did not materialize. The bulk of the 800-plus arrests were made there . . .
But average citizens, including the 10,000 law-abiding ones who came out to peacefully protest against the war in Iraq, were not prepared to see St. Paul turned into a No Man’s Land where roofs were lined with snipers, streets were lined with legions of cops, security fences channeled citizens like rats and you had to color within the lines or you’d kiss asphalt and visit Bob Fletcher’s No Frills Motel.
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Amy Goodman Describes Her Arrest
Posted on September 8, 2008