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Homeland Insecurity in the Twin Cities
Vlad Tichberg, Olivia Katz and Anita Brathwaite, at a press conference at Hennepin County Government Center plaza August 26, charged that Minneapolis police violated their First Amendment rights by confiscating notebooks, cameras, cell phones and notebooks.
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Cameras, camcorders, cell phones, computer, notebooks – even clothes and a sleeping bag – were confiscated by Minneapolis police in the name of Homeland Security Monday night, according to a trio of young artist-journalists in town to report on the RNC.
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Anita Brathwaite, age 20, had just arrived on the bus from Chicago late on August 25, ready to report on the RNC. Vlad Tichberg and Olivia Katz, fellow members of New York’s Glass Bead Collective had arrived earlier. They met her at the bus station, and the trio headed back to the home in Northeast Minneapolis where they planned to stay while reporting on the convention. According to their attorney, Bruce Nestor, they boarded the 17B bus, getting off at Washington and 27th Avenue, and walking the final two and one-half blocks at about 1:30 a.m. on August 26.
For additional reporting on police harassment related to the RNC, see Pre-RNC homeland insecurity: Police abuses of power ramping up as convention nears from the Minnesota Independent.
Then two Minneapolis squad cars stopped them. In the initial conversation, Brathwaite said, the officers asked them about robberies in the neighborhood. Then they were ordered to put their hands on the hood of the squad car and officers began searching them. When they asked if they were under arrest, the officers said no. They asked if they were free to go – no, again. At some point, a white SUV from the Hennepin County Sheriff’s department pulled up, but no one got out of that vehicle.
“We kept saying we do not consent to any search,” Brathwaite said, but the officers searched their belongings anyway. The three young people were questioned separately, photographed, and released, but police refused to return their belongings. They even took the backpack and sleeping bag that held all of Brathwaite’s clothing and personal belongings for the week ahead.
“To add insult to injury,” Tichberg said, “they refused to give us a receipt for our belongings. This is completely outside what I would call a law and order society.”
Attorney Bruce Nestor says that he was informed that police are now seeking a search warrant to search the items for evidence of trespassing in a railroad yard, a misdemeanor offense. In his fifteen years of practicing law, Nestor said, he has never seen confiscation of belongings under similar circumstances for investigation of a misdemeanor. The trio insist never went into the railroad yard, and that video from the squad cars will show that they did not.
The one-line police report says, “S1, S2 and S3 were observed walking out of the railroad yard at 26th AV and 6TH ST NE.” In a section labeled “Incident Details,” the report lists two offenses. Trespassing is a violation of 385.380. The other offense is called “Homeland Security Offense,” but no statute or description is given. None of the three have been charged with any offense at press time.
Tichberg said he has no idea why the police initially targeted them, though police in St. Paul observed their visit to the RNC Welcoming Committee’s Convergence Center on Monday afternoon.
The warrantless search and seizure of property, he said, is a violation of their constitutional rights. Seizure of a journalist’s camera, notes, cell phone and computer means that police can obtain all of the phone numbers, names of contacts, schedules of demonstrations that they planned to report on, and notes for their work.
Other recent Homeland Security action in Twin Cities
Minnesota Public Radio reporter Tim Nelson wrote about his own experience of being stopped by private security guards on West Seventh Street in downtown St. Paul and ordered to show identification. He refused, but reports that he has heard of at least two other incidents where St. Paul police asked for identification from photographers, citing Homeland Security concerns. One, who asked Nelson to identify him only by a pseudonym because of concern for his clients’ privacy, told Nelson:
“I’ve been taking photos for 45 years and this is the first time this has ever happened to me,” Flâneur says of his experience near Hamm Plaza “I have taken pictures of demonstrations in front of the White House and this hasn’t happened to me. I have taken pictures in Communist East Germany and this hasn’t happened to me. Only in St. Paul.”
Back in Minneapolis, Nelson reports that a “former journalist in North Minneapolis” had a similar run-in with police on Monday night (August 25):
He said they handcuffed him, searched his bag and camera referred to him as a “terrorist.” Some plainclothes officers eventually showed up and straightened things out. There’s a lot more to his account, and I called and emailed the Minneapolis police to inquire – and try to verify – the incident, but they haven’t gotten back to me.
Anyway, the former journalist says that he was released after about an hour. He said in an email that he was “warned to stay away from all of the RNC activities. The investigators explained to me that nothing would happen to me unless one of the sites I photographed was compromised, or I was detained again for anything related to the RNC.”
Comments
Totalitarian Behavior in a 'free' society
The three people should initiate a lawsuit against the city of minneapolis immediately and a petition to support them should be circulated among all freedom loving people who still believe that the bill of rights affords us some protection…
Homeland Security in Minneapolis
This type of behavior is despicable. It will only serve to incite people even more and bring very negative attention to these beautiful cities in Minnesota. That will hurt all of us. The “blue silence” on this story is also very disturbing.
Unfortunately, this type of
Unfortunately, this type of incident is not unusual in the post 9-11 Bush world of paranoia. There are thousands of bus, railroad, and rail transit enthusiasts who photograph in the pursuit of their hobby. This has resulted in the thousands of historical photographs documenting the evolution of the transportation industry.
In the Bush world of paranoia many of these hobbyists have been threatened with arrest, had their equipment confiscated or damaged, and had their rights violated for taking photographs on public property. A few have been roughed up or physically assaulted in the name of “Homeland Security”. The worst offenders have been the $8.00/hr security guards, however transit and city police, as well as “railroad police” who are essentially overpaid security guards, have also violated the hobbyists rights.
When these events occur unchallenged everyone’s rights are diminished.
What's the matter with Minnesota?
For the government of ALL the people to hire and empower goon squads to deliberately intimidate SOME of the people is criminal on many levels:
The laws of every state embody protections against such activities.
The oaths sworn by government employees bind them to support and obey the existing laws of the land.
Amendments to the US Constitution address the rights of the individual regarding arrest, detention, confiscation of property.
.Police procedures are spelled out in detail re warrants for search and arrest, as well as officer identification.
What’s the big deal? A few overzealous deputies in SWAT costumes? No.
The big deal is the blatant disregard of citizens’ rights, and of the limits on
government authority to control assembly and speech by the citizenry. It’s that thugs with weapons bullied US citizens in a preemptive, multilayered, multilocation assault, as though the citizens were al Qaida suspects. It’s that armored, masked, booted goons did not present warrants to the US citizens at the door, or leave a warrant behind when they left. It’s that these sworn
“Minions of the Law” hid their shield numbers from the citizens, and looted items of valuable professional and personal property from them. It’s that the
police arrayed elaborate displays of “evidence” they claim to have found in
the citizens’ possession, and photographed these displays for use in their
threatened “trials” of the citizens. The big deal is that this was a carefully planned and accomplished assault on US citizens’ rights, and the troops were paid for by other US citizens.
Videos and eyewitness testimony have been denied by the perpetrators of
these mini-atrocities, and the media have done their best to bury the acts
of these thuggish stormtroopers with a, “Move along folks. Nothing to see here.” attitude, and with sparse, government-biased reporting of the facts.
Minneapolis and St Paul have been added to the Internet archive of places that show a trend welcomed by those folks who think the Constitution is a quaint concept, and that preemptive war is a rational alternative for us..
The people of Minnesota must immediately publicly demand the removal of every government employee who participated in planning, authorizing and commission of crimes against laws and the Constitution. .
Anything less than thorough investigation by an unquestionably unbiased
commission will fail to punish those who inflicted damage to Minnesota’s
reputation and to serve as a deterrant to those who may be tempted to do
similar crimes in the future.
The Internet is watching.
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