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RNC protest highlights need for new priorities
Photo by Mary Turck
As the Republican National Convention convened Monday in downtown St. Paul, more than 10,000 people took to the streets to protest the Iraq War and demand new priorities for the nation.
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“The war costs $10 billion a month,” said Polly Pampusch, who teaches English as a second language at Maxfield Elementary School in St. Paul. “I’ve been teaching for 30 years and the last eight years have been a very tough time for our schools.”
The march, organized to protest the war, drew a diverse group of citizens who said the country is headed in the wrong direction. The event was timed to coincide with an appearance by President George W. Bush at the convention, but Bush canceled his speech so he could track the effects of Hurricane Gustav on the Gulf Coast.
The communities in the path of the hurricane were also on the minds of the protesters, who collected donations for Gulf residents affected by the disaster. Demonstrators also made a link between the Bush administration’s failure to respond to Hurricane Katrina three years ago, the Iraq War and the many unmet needs in the United States.
“We demand a reordering of national and local priorities . . . toward jobs, education, health care, rebuilding our infrastructure and an end to poverty as we know it,” said Phyllis Walker, president of AFSCME Local 3800, which represents clerical workers at the University of Minnesota.
As the protesters exercised their free speech rights, hundreds of police – some in riot gear – lined the sidewalks of downtown St. Paul. After the march, some 50 people were reportedly arrested for smashing windows and violating the convention security zone. According to the St. Paul Pioneer Press, police fired rubber bullets into one crowd and used tear gas and pepper spray.
As the anti-war march neared the Xcel Energy Center, site of the Republican national convention, demonstrators were herded past large security fences that blocked access to the facility.
Nearby, a sign on the Dorothy Day Center, a homeless shelter operated by Catholic Charities, read, “Our political agenda: food, shelter and dignity.”
That sentiment was echoed by many in the march.
“When will we come out in numbers to say no to inequality, hunger and homelessness in the United States of America?” wondered Cheri Honkala, organizer for the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign.
“It is our families that go to war because they are poor in this ‘economic draft.’”
The campaign planned a Monday evening “Truth Commission” at a local church to call attention to the problem of poverty in Minnesota and across the nation.
Comments
Numbers
The numbers are quite different depending on sources : the local press says 8 000 (but we know they need glasses), in other places you can read 10 times more, 50 000, 85 000 (some city record) ??? I guess we will never know but we were a lot.
Clarification on police dispersal methods
Your piece says that the Pioneer Press mentions the police using rubber bullets. My reading of the paper notes their mentioning teargas, concussion grenades and the firing of “beanbags” at protesters. Other accounts in the TC Daily Planet mention these (and variants).
I’m not at all here to defend the police or their actions. I was, however, alarmed to see that they had potentially used rubber bullets, a tactic I had thought was officially discontinued by local police.
I’m concerned that reporting on all of what’s going on be accurate so that it cannot be dismissed my readers and seekers of the truth. Please accept this gentle query into the veracity of your source and the allegation itself: Did the police use rubber bullets against protesters, journalists, vandals or innocently gathered bystanders?
Barry Madore
St. Paul
police dispersal methods
Barry,
A Pioneer Press online story last night mentioned the police shooting rubber bullets into a crowd, but now, after looking through their website, I see that reference is no longer there. It looks like their reports have been updated a number of times. I want to be accurate, so I’ll delete the reference from the article on Workday Minnesota and will ask the Daily Planet to do the same. Thanks for calling this to my attention.
Barb Kucera
Other rubber bullets mentions: Truth?
I’ve found several other references to rubber bullets usage but nothing that’s conclusive. I think this is important. I’d like to know if our police are using rubber bullets. Here’s what I’ve found:
MPR Story that mentions rubber bullets in body of story:
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/09/01/rnc_day1/
KARE11.com story with rubber bullets in headline but not in story:
http://www.kare11.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=523550&catid=2
Democracy Now account of Amy Goodman and other DN staff arrests that mentions rubber bullets (as she also mentions in reading this same story live on DN today but was not present to see such as she was on the Xcel floor at the time):
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/9/2/as_the_rnc_opens_in_st
City Pages article from July 2008 reporting a hearing of the Mpls City Council about potential banning of rubber bullets usage in which MPD Sgt. Jesse Garcia said they wouldn’t use rubber bullets: “It’s just something that’s not applicable in this day and age,” he said. “There’s better, newer things that are available.”
http://blogs.citypages.com/gop/2008/07/city_council_to.php
A democrats.org blog post that quotes a theuptake.org report that mentions the use of rubber bullets but I could not find any such report on theuptake.org:
http://www.democrats.org/page/community/post/rjsnj/Cg4H
I’m still looking but I’d love it if anyone has firsthand witness of the use of rubber bullets or can confirm that rubber bullets were not used.
Barry Madore
Saint Paul
KFAI supports terrorists
KFAI is supporting the anarchists. You’ve hosted them on you daytime news program. Some of the things they did yesterday:
Throw heavy sandbags off of overpasses and onto cars and buses, trying to hit windows.
They attacked a bus load of cub scouts.
Smashed the front window of a bus, injuring the driver.
Threw bleach on people.
Does KFAI consider these okay tactics?
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