Twin Cities Daily Planet (https://www.tcdailyplanet.net/category/special-sections/rnc-2008/page/10/)
by Paul Schmelzer, September 15, 2008 • One of the more disturbing clips, of way too many, from the Republican National Convention, is this one showing Leah Lane being repeatedly blasted with pepperspray by Minneapolis police officers who knock her down with their bikes. Continue Reading
Hey, someone’s been eating my constitutional rights!After St. Paul announced last week that a man named Heffelfinger would review law enforcement during the Republican National Convention, a local TV station trumpeted what would seem to be Goldilocks’ view on the matter. This weekend’s SurveyUSA/KSTP-TV poll reported that – in Three-Bears fashion – 60 percent of Minnesotans surveyed chose “Just About Right” as the best answer to this question: “How do you think law enforcement handled the arrests of hundreds of protesters during the Republican National Convention?”
“Just About Right?” Does that mean 60 percent of Minnesotans think that 45 is just about the right number of journalists to be arrested and detained? So 53 would have been too aggressive, 36 not quite aggressive enough? And 27 medics in cuffs is perfect — why, because it’s 3 X 3 X 3? Continue Reading
Zoe and her mother came to the big protest march on Labor Day. Zoe is five years old. She said she likes demonstrations, and made the sign that is attached to her stroller. She explained that the sign shows “Obama sitting in a chair on TV — saying I want war to stop and make money for schools and buildings.” The explosions of concussion grenades, pepper spray and tear gas drowned out the voices of some people who came to demonstrate. Continue Reading
Mayor R.T. Rybak announced this afternoon that Minneapolis would conduct a series of reviews into the Minneapolis Police Department’s (MPD) actions in Minneapolis during the Republican National Convention, including a standard “after-action report” that will look into related security measures and the development of new policies for dealing with the media. A City Council member who has urged a blue-ribbon, multijurisdictional review said the mayor’s statement was “good” but appeared to fall short of “a public, independent, transparent process.”
According to a statement from Rybak’s office (see pages 1, 2, 3), the police review — which will focus on the Critical Mass ride, the Media Party, the Liberty Parade and the Rage against the Machine concert — will assess police officers’ training prior to the RNC and identify areas for improvement. It will be completed by the end of October. Minneapolis officials will also cooperate with St. Paul in its outside review of public safety, which that city’s mayor recently announced would be conducted by attorneys Andy Luger and Tom Heffelfinger. Continue Reading
With city officials in St. Paul and Minneapolis alternately fanning and smothering the sparks of independent RNC policing investigations, this Minnesota Independent video offers a preview in black and blue of what sure-to-come civil lawsuits will bring to light about police misconduct during the Republican National Convention. In the video, six protesters — Mick Kelly, Deborah Hollingsworth, Richard Hernandez, Wendy Binion, Jason Brian Johnson and Elliot Hughes — show their bruises, cuts and bandaged limbs and tell the stories of how they received their injuries at the hands of law enforcement. The protesters appeared at a press conference held by the Coldsnap Legal Collective outside the St. Paul City Hall/Ramsey County Courthouse building after last week’s convention. Continue Reading
The morning after Republicans wrapped up their party convention in St. Paul, the Minnesota Newspaper Guild joined other local and national media organizations in denouncing the arrest of journalists covering protests outside the four-day event.The Guild was part of a group delivering to public authorities a petition with more than 50,000 signatures calling for all charges against journalists covering the convention to be dropped. Mike Bucsko, executive officer of the union that represents more than 450 Twin Cities journalists, called police tactics heavy handed and urged St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman and others to conduct a thorough “post-mortem” investigation into how – and why – so many journalists were detained. “We’re appalled,” Bucsko said in a press conference outside City Hall. Continue Reading
The 2008 Republican National Convention held last week in St. Paul had the lowest Black representation in 40 years, according to a report by the non-partisan Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies [see Brief below]. Of the roughly 2,400 total GOP delegates, the 36 Black delegates made up only 1.5 percent. “I think we have a good showing here,” said Renee Amoore, deputy chairperson of the Pennsylvania delegation, who disagreed with the Joint Center report. Added Rufus Montgomery of Georgia, “There are a number of African American delegates who traveled here from across the country. Continue Reading
Of the 800-plus people who were arrested or detained in conjunction with RNC protests, a good chunk of them — 42, by our count — were members of the news media. Media
representatives in town to cover the events, from both big and small presses, were slapped with citations and pending charges ranging in severity, including unlawful assembly, obstructing the legal process, misdemeanor interference with a peace officer and felony to riot plus other riot pretenses. (Notably Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman was jailed along with two of the show’s producers.) Many others who weren’t arrested or detained endured pepper-spray and other arms used for crowd-control. MnIndy has compiled a list of journalists who were detained or arrested, including some preemptively, culled from news reports and sources, including the Ramsey County sheriff’s department’s booking roster. Continue Reading
Congratulations to the RNC Welcoming Committee for shutting Bush and Cheney out of their twilight convention. With a combination of chutzpah, media hype and exploitation of the Bush-Cheney rule of fear, the reviled national leaders were no-shows at the Grand Old Party in Saint Paul. The Free Speech Zone offers a space for contributions from readers, without editing by the TC Daily Planet. This is an open forum for articles that otherwise might not find a place for publication, including news articles, opinion columns, announcements and even a few press releases. Minnesota Nice also took a hit with a show of brutality not witnessed since the 2000 animal genetics conference in Minneapolis. Continue Reading
St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman announced late Tuesday afternoon that the city will undergo an outside review of the public safety effort tied to the Republican National Convention — but its limited scope may not satisfy calls from various quarters for independent review of police misconduct. Leading the charge is former U.S. Attorney Tom Heffelfinger, who now works for Minneapolis law firm Best & Flanagan, and Andy Luger, previously an assistant U.S. attorney who is employed at Greene Espel in Minneapolis. They’ll be putting a team together to perform the assessment and define its parameters, according to a statement from the mayor’s office. The timeline for the study and other details are yet to be nailed down, according to mayoral spokesman Bob Hume. Continue Reading