Big Green Bus arrested!
Megan Wilson lives on the big green bus with her parents, three dogs and three chickens. Or she did, until the police seized the bus on Saturday evening in St. Paul.
Outside my home, police cars with flashing lights lined the street. Now what? After ten hours of chasing the continuing stories of police raids on activists and journalists, I had gone out for a quick dinner with my husband. I didn’t really think these police were there for me, but …
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I walked over to the Minnesota highway patrol officer guarding the fence at the freeway, and was ordered back across the street. Well, at least that meant they weren’t here for me. Down at the corner, I spotted the cluster of green hats that means National Lawyers Guild legal observers, and the TV crews.
Everybody was there for the big green bus with “Millennium” written on its side. The bus, formally known as the Earth Activist Training Permaculture Demonstration Bus, is home to 17-year-old Megan Wilson and her parents, Delilah and Stan Wilson and their three dogs and three chickens. They come from Montana, and the demonstration in the bus title refers to in-bus demonstrations of solar panels and hydroponic gardening and composting other earth-friendly, sustainable practices. They also do training in “skills for the new millennium,” such as communications and peaceful resolution of differences.
>The “permibus” folks have an interesting blog at http://permibus.livejournal.com.
The Wilsons had just done a training in Minneapolis on urban permaculture. They were pulled over on the Cretin exit ramp from I-94 as they headed to a friend’s house to park the bus and get a good night’s sleep. Megan was changing clothes, and was in her underwear when the cops ordered them off the bus, but did manage to grab a dress.
Why were they pulled over? That’s what Stan asked the police. Repeatedly. “I asked them more questions than they asked me,” he said.
“A routine traffic stop,” the police told him. A routine traffic stop, with more than a dozen police cars including Minnesota highway patrol, St. Paul, Minneapolis, University of Minnesota and Ramsey County officers lined up with lights flashing.
Stan isn’t buying it. For one thing, the police never gave any reason for pulling him over. They never asked to see his vehicle registration or proof of insurance. Instead, they asked him: “Have you ever called the police before?” and “Do you like cops?” And then they towed away the big, green bus, telling him they had to “ascertain whether it was being used for commercial purposes,” and that they had to make sure it was safe to be on the road.
I just got one side of the story, from the Wilsons, with Megan crying as her home-on-wheels rolled away. I just got one side of the story, because when I asked the cops what was going on, they told me what they have been saying all day. “I don’t know. Step back. Stay on the other side of the street.”
Mary Turck is the editor of the Twin Cities Daily Planet.
workaround
Comments
Towed it away?!?!
“ascertain whether it was being used for commercial purposes,” and that they had to make sure it was safe to be on the road.” ?!!!? What a crock. The DOT has roadside inspection vehicles and officers and can do an inspection in 10 minutes flat, it happens every day, ask any truckdriver. All they have to do is call the state DOT and considering how many state patrol cars were there. Harassment, plain and simple. Outrageous. They’ll end up paying big bucks for the tow, for impound fees, and be homeless until they do…
Harassment, yes
If all the people rounded up before the GOP convention (and during it) have access to good lawyers, the Twin Cities are going to be in for a world of hurt in couple of years…paying damages.
That’s what happened in NYC after overzealous cops started arresting everyone (even bike messengers, iirc, and people on their way home) and throwing them all in jail…for days…without any probable cause except that they were on the street.
It was in the NYT on multiple occasions. Last story I read, the city ended up paying millions in wrongful arrest suits.
If anyone who lives in the Twin Cities reads this, they might want to suggest to the Powers That Be that those millions could be more usefully spent on reinforcing bridges than paying off protesters.
Wait; I forgot; the GOP doesn’t think in those terms….
What the heck is going on
What the heck is going on with local law enforcement the past two days? The statement that they “they had to “ascertain whether it was being used for commercial purposes,” and that they had to make sure it was safe to be on the road” is nonsense. If the vehicle was registered in Montana it is not the responsibility of Minnesota law enforcement to determine if Montana properly registered the bus under Montana laws.
As to the “safety” of the vehicle, this is legitimate State Patrol territory, however the normal practice is to call for a Commercial Vehicle Inspector (CVI) to come and inspect the vehicle at the scene. This happens with commercial vehicle accidents except school buses with over $4,400 total damage, school bus accidents with over $4,400 damage to the bus, or any CV accident that results in death or personal injury.
The normal after hours procedure if a police officer or Trooper suspected that a vehicle was unsafe would be to request a CVI. An inspector would them be sent from the Saint Croix Scale or called to return to duty from their residence. There is at least one CVI residing in Saint Paul within five miles of where this occurred.
Knowing procedures, this incident smells rotten. I would expect better from the Patrol.
Big Green Bus
How very appropriate these so-called ‘cops’ stopped the bus at the Cretin ramp. Gives us all a pretty good look at their intellectual level…..
If this was my bus, I’d
If this was my bus, I’d be slapping the biggest, most expensive law suit on there butts that they’d ever heard of. More militarized fascist jack booted thugs.
WTF
you see the more and more we give to government the more big brother thinks they can run our lives.
I cannot wait until someone
I cannot wait until someone like Keith Olbermann gets through with these morons. First, the three citizen journalists from Glassbead Collective, now this! That’s just the stuff I’ve heard of thusfar! I guess the Twin Cities don’t care how much they’ll get sued for this, they seem to wanna be all big and bad and tough, rendering a teenage girl and her parents homeless on the edge of the highway. This stinks of Rovian terror tactics. These cops ain’t gonna be happy, either, that their pictures are splashed all over the net, abusing their power! They need to remember that karma’s got some seriously sharp teeth and a propensity for backsides!
The new target
We’ve seen this coming for a long time: ecologists are the new Commies.
Persecuting Muslims was fun for a while, but it causes too much trouble and they have too many neighbours to testify that they’re just good citizens, and you can’t bash terrorists because they hide. Much easier to target political troublemakers who put themselves out in the open.
AND YOU HEARD CUBA WAS A
AND YOU HEARD CUBA WAS A BAD PLACE TO LIVE !!!!!
Hair Trigger
I agree , the police seem to have a hair-trigger response towards activists there days , any indication of free thinking tendencies and they pull you over.
I have a suspicion that they are being payed by the politicians being backed by the oil cartels that have a lot to lose if the green movement propagates
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