RNC 2008

Just before 8 a.m. on August 30, Jean Johnstad was sitting on her porch in south Minneapolis having her morning coffee. She was still in her bathrobe, enjoying a peaceful Saturday morning. Suddenly, the quiet was broken by a commotion and raised male voices coming from the street behind the garage. She peeked around the corner of a garage and saw police in SWAT team gear with their guns drawn in front of the Food Not Bombs house at 2301 S. 23rd Ave. MORE »

On Thursday, the Community RNC Arrestee Support Structure (CRASS) held a press conference at the state capitol echoing Saint Paul Police Chief John Harrington and Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher’s request for assistance in locating victims and suspects of RNC-related violence. MORE »

The presence of police in riot gear intimidated citizens, and created the feeling of a police state at the September Republican National Convention (RNC), according to testimony at a public hearing in St. Paul on November 6. Approximately a dozen St Paul residents testified about their RNC experiences before a commission led by co-chairs Tom Heffelfinger and Andy Luger. The seven-member commission was convened by the City of St. Paul to investigate RNC security and planning, Heffelfinger pointed out, and is not focusing on individual instances of police or citizen misconduct. The commission is documenting testimonies from residents to make recommendations to law enforcement for future conventions. MORE »

The official story is that anyone can walk into St. Paul police headquarters and view the footage from the 100-plus cameras monitoring downtown and the Central Corridor for crime. The official story also says that the cameras are monitored by police in the Western District station (on Hamline Avenue) and in the central St. Paul police headquarters. Actually, on a recent day, no one seemed to be watching and the public monitor did not work at all. MORE »

In an interview during his recent visit to Minnesota, former Chicago Eight defendant Tom Hayden talked about the current practice of designating national conventions and other meetings as “national special security events.” Hayden, who served in the California legislature from 1982-2000, criticized massive federal funding of local police departments for such events, and called the arrests of the RNC Eight in Minnesota “a by-product of the perceived necessity of the war on terrorism.” MORE »

by Charley Underwood • 10/24/08 • One year later, it’s time to compare the reality of the RNC with the pledges made by Assistant St. Paul Police Chief Matt Bostrom on October 23, 2007.

On October 23, 2007, the Minnesota Alliance of Peacemakers and the University of St Thomas Justice and Peace Department invited the St Paul police to discuss the upcoming Republican National Convention. It is absolutely amazing to look back on the promises made and compare them to what actually happened.

by Mary Turck • 10/23/08 • The Strib and the PiPress give strangely different accounts of an RNC-related guilty plea.

by Mary Turck, 10/2/08 • The media’s job is to report the news, and that includes reporting inconvenient facts that contradict the “official stories” about the RNC.

by Larry Johnson • 10/16/08 • Well, I did it. I walked guard duty around the perimeter of the Twin Cities during the Republican National Convention. I walked, and I stayed alert for dangerous elements trying to get in — things like unnecessary, no-bid contracts for war profiteers, as well as extreme deregulation favoring the “high end haves” over the “horrendously harassed have-less.” I walked every day, and I prayed for all our grown-up children, along with our 13 grandchildren and their friends, and theirs and theirs and theirs.

by l’etoile magazine staff • 10/15/08 • The spooky season is fast descending upon us!